MPs back counter-terror law

Gordon Brown has survived a crunch Commons vote, with MPs backing plans to increase the limit for the pre-charge detention for terror suspects.

The government's Counter-Terrorism Bill was passed by just nine votes on Wednesday evening.

Some 315 MPs backed the government, while 306 voted against the controversial proposals.

And at third reading, the measure was approved by 315 votes to 78, a government majority of 237.

The legislation will now be considered in the Lords, where defeats for ministers have been predicted.

Ministers argue that police and prosecuting authorities should be given 42 days to deal with the complexity of the terror threat, but an estimated 36 Labour rebels voted with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats on the issue.

The rebels included Andrew Dismore, chairman of the joint committee on human rights, former ministers Frank Dobson, Michael Meacher and Chris Mullin, and leftwingers John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn.

The government had been forced to offer a series of concessions to woo any wavering potential rebels and home secretary Jacqui Smith announced ahead of the vote that suspects held beyond 28 days and released without charge would be entitled to compensation.

"I have asked my officials to develop an ex-gratia scheme because of the very distinctive circumstances here that would be available to compensate those who are released without charge or who face any other executive action," she said.

Smith stressed that the move was necessary to protect national security but that it would only be used as a "reserve power".

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats opposed moves to increase the current 28-day limit, and the government was forced to announce a package of measures in an attempt to win over Labour MPs.

Smith warned of a "real and serious" threat, which was "more ruthless than any we have faced before".

"The government believes that such a reserve power should be available for use, if necessary, to protect our national security and, most importantly, our people, against the threat that we face from terrorism," she said.

She argued that it was the role of government to give police and prosecutors the tools they need to protect society.

But shadow home secretary David Davis said: "It is the job of Parliament to defend the liberties that we've had for centuries.

"You offer us a Faustian bargain - to trade a fundamental liberty for a little extra security.

"And yet as this debate has gone on the case for 42 days has first crumbled, then collapsed."

On plans to allow innocent people to seek compensation, Davis called for a "more explicit admission of the inevitable failure of this law, or the foreseeable injustice it will bring".

"It's for this House to search its conscience to determine whether putting in place a system of six weeks' detention, which on current experience half or more [suspects] are likely to prove innocent, will serve the vital interests of national security," he said.

Despite the safeguards, a number of backbenchers rebelled against the government.

With the Tories and Lib Dems opposed to the extension it came down to the votes of nine Democratic Unionist MPs, who backed the government.

David Winnick, who led the revolt against Tony Blair's attempt to increase the limit to 90 days, said he was "not persuaded by any means that there is any justification for what is being proposed".

Regent's Park and Kensington North MP Karen Buck said she was "deeply unconvinced" that the definition in the Bill "would not effectively catch almost all forms of terrorist activity, and not constitute an exceptional circumstance which generates the need for exceptional powers".