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Blair faces quit call after bill defeat

Patrick Wintour

Defeat presages further revolts, says ex-Minister Clare Short

London: British Premier Tony Blair was facing backbench calls to stand aside after nearly 63 Labour MPs inflicted a first, and overwhelming, House of Commons defeat on his eight-year-old Government, spurning his personal plea to respect the police by giving them powers to detain terrorist suspects for up to 90 days.

In the biggest reverse for a British government on a whipped vote since James Callaghan's administration in the late 1970s, Mr. Blair was defeated comprehensively by 322 to 291, with 49 Labour backbenchers, including 11 former Ministers, defying a three-line whip. Thirteen others abstained.

As the impact on the Prime Minister's authority sunk in, MPs then voted by 323 to 290 to support detention without charge for only 28 days, the position advocated by the Liberal Democrats and the Tories. The scale of the defeat rocked Labour whips, raising questions about Mr. Blair's political judgment of late and suggesting that he now has a permanent cadre of irreconcilable backbenchers who neither listen to nor respect his views, leaving him in charge of an effective minority administration on controversial issues.

The former Cabinet Minister, Clare Short, said the defeat presaged further revolts. ``It would be good for him, and certainly the Labour administration, if he moved on quickly,'' she said. Another former Minister, Frank Dobson, predicted bigger revolts on Mr. Blair's plans for schools.

A personal gamble

Cabinet Ministers insisted they would not water down their reform programme, but they will have to redouble their efforts to explain their plans on education, incapacity benefit and health reform.

Mr. Blair, who personally decided to gamble by putting the 90-day detention to the vote, sounded an uncomprehending note afterwards. ``The country will think Parliament will have behaved in a deeply irresponsibly way, I have no doubt about that at all,'' he said. ``Sometimes it is better to do the right thing and lose, than to win doing the wrong thing. I have no doubt what the right thing was to do in this instance, to support the police.

``When the police say they are fighting mass-casualty terrorism and they provide examples of why they need the powers, I think you need powerful reasons to turn round and say no to them.'' He added: ``There was every possible safeguard, with the police having come back to a high court judge to make its case every seven days.''

Michael Howard, Conservative leader, said: ``Mr. Blair has been engaged in the most appalling distortion of the arguments.

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.''

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said the Prime Minister had to learn he needed to build consensus.

"Need for consensus"

At an electric Prime minister's questions in the House of Commons, an angry Mr. Blair tried to discomfort the Tories. ``When those charged with protecting our country provide, as they have, a compelling case for action, I know what my duty is. My duty is to support them, and so is the duty, in my view, of every member of this house.''

At one point, Mr. Blair looked about to lose his temper when one Tory shouted that he was trying to set up a police state.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

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