Bid for 42-day detention 'will be disaster for Labour'

Published on Thursday 17 April 2008 22:18

THE government is heading for a "train crash" defeat over proposals to increase the time terrorist suspects can be held without charge, the Liberal Democrats warned yesterday.

Chris Huhne, the home affairs spokesman, said the move to increase the limit from 28 to 42 days was also likely to alienate moderate Muslims, whose support was essential in securing convictions.

There was also a warning that the government had failed to learn the lessons from Northern Ireland, where the use of internment without trial in the 1970s "poisoned" relations between the police and the Protestant and Catholic communities.

The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, has been trying to secure support for a 42-day limit but, with the Conservatives and Lib Dems opposed, the government faces defeat if around 30 Labour back-benchers rebel when the Commons votes next month.

Mr Huhne said: "The government is heading for a train crash, and it will not have a majority for these provisions."

He said he expected a bigger rebellion than in 2005, when 49 Labour MPs voted against the government's wish to extend the limit from 14 to 90 days – the first defeat for Tony Blair, then prime minister.

The former lord chancellor, Lord Falconer, former attorney-general Lord Goldsmith and present director of public prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald have all opposed the 42-day plan.