Laura Moffatt fails to defend freedom in Commons vote on 42 days

9.09.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 12th Jun 2008

Sir Menzies Campbell used his first parliamentary speech since resigning as the Liberal Democrat leader to issue a rallying call to MPs to accept that their duty to protect freedom "transcends all of our other responsibilities". Crawley's Labour MP, Laura Moffatt failed to respond to that call and allowed the Government's 42 days detention without trial bill to get through the House of Commons by just nine votes.

Sir Menzies said he would vote against the 42 day detention plan "not because I'm soft on terror or because I fail to recognise the seriousness of the threat". He added: "I will vote against the government because any time any government seeks to diminish any freedoms which are the cornerstone of our system, it is our duty collectively and individually to hold that government to account. That duty transcends all of our other responsibilities."

Lib Dem Leader, Nick Clegg MP, said it was a meaningless waste of time. "Everyone knows that the proposal will not become law - it will be blocked in the Lords, the Human Rights Commission will challenge it in court, and the European court of human rights will declare it illegal. "Why is he (the Prime minister) playing politics with our liberties for a bill that no one thinks is necessary, no one thinks will work in practice and everyone knows will never reach the statute book?"

Chris Huhne MP, The Lib Dem Shadow Home Secretary, said that the measure would give the terrorists "exactly what they want - clear evidence of an insensitive and oppressive state". The government had offered compensation for miners and lifting the blockade on Cuba - "important issues, but what the devil do they have to do with this bill?"

The Prime Minister did not win the vote because he convinced parliament of his case, but thanks to backroom deals. It was a forced victory in the worst of circumstances, a law no one wants imposed by a government that wanted to look strong but ended up too weak to accept the obvious. The prime minister got his way, but at a sorry cost to the progressive ideals that he seemed to represent when he arrived in office a year ago.