The very First Defeat for Britain's Labour party (reject, hell)

[michel]

Blair meets Cabinet after defeat

Tony Blair is meeting his Cabinet as he tries to draw a line under his his first Commons defeat as prime minister.

Mr Blair says his authority is intact despite losing the vote over a key part of his anti-terror plans.

But Tory leader Michael Howard says Mr Blair should resign, while Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy warned Mr Blair could become a "lame duck" leader. MPs, including 49 Labour rebels, voted down plans to detain terror suspects for up to 90 days without charge.




The police and Home Office said they were disappointed that their demands failed to get parliamentary approval. Officials met Mr Blair on Thursday for a briefing on counter terrorism.

Mr Blair has said he hopes MPs "do not rue the day" they rejected his call to allow police to detain terror suspects for up to 90 days without charging them.


I think it was a wrong decision - I just hope in a longer time we don't rue it
Tony Blair
Prime minister



MPs voted against by 322 votes to 291, but later backed a proposal to extend the detention time limit to 28 days from the current 14 days.

Mr Blair, who is planning to quit as prime minister before the next election, has said he will serve a full third term.

He told BBC News: "I don't think it is a matter of my authority - of course I would have preferred to have won rather than lost."

Wrong decision

Mr Blair said the police had argued the case for the 90-day detention proposal was "vital" and "compelling".

It had been his duty to put the plan before MPs and it had been their right to vote against it, he said.

But, he said: "I think it was a wrong decision - I just hope in a longer time we don't rue it."


COMMONS VOTES
90 days' detention time limit: Defeated by 322 votes to 291, majority 31
Backbench compromise of 28 days' detention: Passed by 323 votes to 290, majority 33




Home Secretary Charles Clarke told BBC News he had "no doubt" that Mr Blair would still serve a full third term in Downing Street.

Mr Clarke said: "The fact that we failed to get it through indicates our authority was not enough to carry it."

But that did not mean the government's general authority was diminished, he argued.

The vote was a particular case where serial rebels had combined with MPs who had genuine concerns about civil liberties, he said.

Mr Clarke said Mr Blair had left it to him as home secretary to decide whether to hold a vote on the 90-day plan.

The prime minister was not the "private dictator" sometimes portrayed, he added.

High stakes?

Some Labour MPs expressed concerns about Mr Blair's authority, particularly over planned reforms.

Former Health Secretary Frank Dobson, one of the Labour rebels, said: "Quite a number of people who voted with the government told me that there is no question of them supporting the education White Paper or plans to privatise parts of the National Health Service."


If this happens to health and education then there will be hell to pay
Paul Farrelly
MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme



Mr Dobson said he did not want a change of prime minister, but wanted Mr Blair to change.

Labour MP Paul Farrelly, who supported the government, also said if the prime minister used the same style of leadership on health and education reforms there "there will be hell to pay".

Another supporter and former minister John Denham said Mr Blair must learn that backbenchers would no longer take him on trust.

But Labour backbencher Stephen McCabe said Mr Blair's power was not in doubt.

"There's actually a quite broad base of support for this legislation because we realise just how serious the stakes are," he said.


VOTE Did MPs get it right on terror vote? Yes No Results are indicative and may not reflect public opinion
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...cs/4423678.stm

Published: 2005/11/10 11:00:16 GMT

© BBC MMV

Some see this as the 'begining of the end'; Margaret Thatcher was full of self worth, and didn't see her downfall coming. It has been suggested that the same is happening to Blair.......................

[James the Persian]

We can only hope...Personally, I'm just glad that he lost this vote as I consider his proposals downright dangerous. If we allow the fear of terrorism to fundamentally alter our society and destroy our freedoms, we are surely helping them towards their goal. Blair also seems overly fond of playing up legitimate public fears, presumably as a means of control - that's a hallmark of many a tyrant but shouldn't really be acceptable democratic politics.

James

James