Brown’s revolting problem

There’s a great story on the front page of today’s Guardian that spans a host of topic areas in the AS Politics syllabus.

The paper reports that:

“Gordon Brown is facing the threat of his first defeat in the Commons since taking over as prime minister, after a Guardian survey found strong - and growing - opposition among Labour MPs to the government’s plans to detain terror suspects without charge for up to 42 days.

As the Labour party gathers in Birmingham for its spring conference, where ministers will be lobbied by opponents of the planned anti-terrorism laws, the Guardian found as many as a third of the party’s 205 backbench MPs could rebel against the government.

Brown has a Commons majority of 67 which means the government could be defeated if 34 Labour MPs rebel, assuming every opposition MP votes no.”
There is material here that is relevant to studies of Parliament as well as Prime Minister and Cabinet.

In addition there is fascinating detail about behind the scenes work by the pressure group Liberty.

“Many rebels said they had been persuaded by Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, who is engaged on what is being dubbed the “war of the tea rooms”, a series of debates with Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, held before Labour MPs.

Frank Cook, MP for Stockton North, said: “Shami made a huge impression on me. After half an hour I said ‘OK, you have done enough’. I picked up the phone and gave a message to Jacqui Smith: I no longer agree.”

Chakrabarti said last night: “A growing number of Labour MPs seem to share Liberty’s fears of another political dogfight about detention without charge. Most are hugely loyal to their party and government; some even voted for 90 days last time round. All want to see the prime minister leading a calm consensus around alternative policies that deal with terrorism within our fair-trial traditions rather than instigating injustice and losing hearts and minds.””

There is more detail on the background to the story here

And a profile of Liberty chief Shami Chakrabarti, a woman who was voted one of the top 10 most influential political figures in Britain in a poll of Radio 4 listeners.