Blair's 3,115-day reign unravels as terror rebels win

• Blair suffers Commons defeat on terror bill of 322 votes to 291

• Seen by many as a turning point in drawing of his leadership to a close

• Blair planning cabinet reshuffle which may put Charles Clarke's role at risk

Key quote

"Mr Blair's authority has been diminished almost to vanishing point. This vote shows he is no longer able to carry his own party with him. He must now consider his position." - MICHAEL HOWARD, TORY LEADER

Story in full TONY Blair last night suffered a shattering Commons defeat that spells the beginning of the end of his premiership, as MPs rejected a terrorism law he said was vital to keep Britain safe from attack.

In what is likely to prove a fatal wound, the Prime Minister's first Commons defeat in more than eight years in office - 3,115 days as of today - was inflicted by his own party. In all, 49 Labour MPs flatly refused to back his call to allow the police to detain suspects without charge for 90 days.

Despite an unprecedented lobbying campaign by senior police officers, Mr Blair's government was defeated on the key measure by 322 votes to 291.

Mr Blair was re-elected in May with a 66-seat Commons majority, but after last night's result, Labour rebels scent blood, believing they can use the momentum to mount other revolts that will thwart the Prime Minister's ambition to leave a legacy of New Labour reform in health, education and the welfare state.

In a desperate bid to shore up his government, Mr Blair was last night planning a Cabinet reshuffle that could result in Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, being sacked or demoted.

Aware they were playing for the highest stakes, Labour whips had pulled out all the stops to avert defeat: Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, and Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, unexpectedly flew back from foreign trips to vote; Ian McCartney, the Labour chairman, who is recovering from heart surgery, rose from his sickbed. It was all to no avail.

Labour back-benchers later forced ministers to accept the detention limit will be set at 28 days. That is a doubling of the current 14 days but still a savage blow for Mr Blair, who had earlier told MPs anything less than 90 days would put Britain at greater risk of terrorist attacks.

Downing Street attempted a damage-limitation exercise last night, insisting the vote was a "one-off issue" and not a referendum on Mr Blair. But Labour MPs and opposition parties alike predicted that his pre-announced resignation during this parliament has now come closer.

The Prime Minister had been braced for the defeat since his weekly Commons Question Time appearance at noon yesterday. There, he angrily rejected Tory allegations he was trying to establish a "police state" and then said: "Sometimes it is better to lose and do the right thing than to win and do the wrong thing."

After losing the vote, Mr Blair insisted he still believed in the case for a 90-day clause and that the majority of voters sided with him. "I have no doubt where the country is on this," he said. "The country will think parliament has behaved in a deeply irresponsible way today."

Continuing their extraordinary foray into party politics, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) issued a statement last night supporting Mr Blair over the 90-day proposal. "Professionals and experts in this area felt that this provided the most effective way of dealing with the current terrorist threat and the complex police investigations required to respond to it," ACPO said. "We are disappointed that this has not been accepted."

Opinion polls suggest most voters agree with the Prime Minister and the police but, despite that support, the scale of his parliamentary loss and the determination of his own party to defeat him left Mr Blair's position in doubt.

Michael Howard, the Tory leader, said: "Mr Blair's authority has been diminished almost to vanishing point. This vote shows he is no longer able to carry his own party with him. He must now consider his position."

Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, said it was a "bad day" for Mr Blair. "It was the Prime Minister who chose to make this issue into one of confidence, and it's a bad day for his authority," he said. Alex Salmond, the SNP leader, said Mr Blair had been "humped" by his own party. "He is a victim of his own arrogance. He may well be on the way out of office."

One former minister who was among the rebels, but did not want to be named, insisted he had not voted to damage Mr Blair's authority.

"This is not about Tony or his position; it's about a badly thought-out bill that the government hasn't made the case for," he said.

Frank Dobson, another rebellious former member of Mr Blair's Cabinet, said the defeat was an inevitable consequence of the Prime Minister's decision to announce last year that he would quit before the next election. "It was plain that his authority was going to decline. Now it has declined," Mr Dobson said.

Even the Prime Minister's closest allies have now abandoned the claim that he will serve "a full term" in office, with one Downing Street source accepting that Mr Blair will quit in time to give Gordon Brown "a good run before the next election - maybe a year, maybe more".

Mr Brown's friends say he has no interest in moving against Mr Blair immediately, but many believe the Chancellor could now enter No 10 within a year.

More immediately, MPs were last night speculating about the future of Mr Clarke. In the days, and even hours, before last night's vote, the Home Secretary had tried to make concessions over the 90-day proposal. Every time, Downing Street later made it clear that there could be no room for compromise.

In particular, Mr Clarke effectively postponed a Commons defeat last week by promising Labour rebels a time limit shorter than 90 days. But late on Monday, Mr Blair ripped up that deal, gambling on getting the measure through the Commons by persuading Tory MPs to defect.

Mr Blair's apparent over-ruling of the Home Secretary angered many Labour MPs. Clare Short, another former Cabinet minister who voted against the government, said the Prime Minister had undermined his minister. "Tony Blair wanted to pose as the macho guy, being even more right-wing than the Tories," she said. "We all know Charles Clarke wanted to make concessions."

Northern Ireland played an unexpected part in Mr Blair's defeat.

The nine Democratic Unionist MPs would normally be expected to vote with the government on security. Yesterday, they were enraged by the coincidental publication of legislation to give an amnesty to "on-the-run" IRA terrorists. The deal is part of the Good Friday Agreement but rankles with the DUP who voted against the government on 90 days.

In No10, angry questions were being asked about how such an incendiary piece of government business could have been allowed to collide so spectacularly with the make-or-break terror vote.

But in the Commons, even normally loyal Labour MPs saw the timetable clash as merely another sign of Mr Blair's waning command. "He's a long way up the creek, and the paddle is gone for good," one MP said.