TORY SHADOW HOME SECRETARY DAVID DAVIS RESIGNS

S E C R E T LONDON 001619

NOFORN
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/12/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM PTER UK
SUBJECT: TORY SHADOW HOME SECRETARY DAVID DAVIS RESIGNS
OVER 42 DETENTION PERIOD -- SAYS BROWN'S NEW BILL IS BREACH
OF BRITISH CIVIL LIBERTIES

REF: A. (A) LONDON 1577


B. (B) LONDON 1607

Classified By: DCM Richard LeBaron for reasons 1.4 (b,d)


1. (U) Conservative Party "Shadow" Home Secretary David
Davis, and one time rival to David Cameron for the
Conservative Party leadership, has unexpectedly resigned in
protest of the House of Commons vote June 11 authorizing the
detention without charge of British citizen and foreign
terror suspects to 42 days. Davis made his announcement to
the press outside of the House of Commons on June 12,
prefacing his remarks by saying he had hoped to make them in
the House but the Speaker's interpretation of House rules did
not permit him to do so. Saying he was engaged in the "noble
endeavor" of defending Britain's tradition of preserving
civil liberties, Davis resigned his seat as a Member of
Parliament, thus losing his position as Shadow Home
Secretary. He said he would stand again for the same seat
based on the single issue of his resistance to the extension
of the pre-charge detention period which he said signaled the
deep erosion of civil liberties in Britain. Davis intends
his by-election to be a referendum on the future of civil
liberties in the UK and said that, while he hoped to return
as an elected MP, he was willing to risk his career to defend
the principle of habeas corpus.


2. (U) After Davis' resignation, Conservative Party leader
David Cameron said he fully agreed with Davis' view that the
42 day detention without charge extension was abhorrent, that
the party would support Davis' run for office in the
by-election, and that Shadow Attorney General Dominic Grieve
would be the new Shadow Home Secretary. The Liberal
Democrats announced, after Davis' statement, that they would
not run a candidate in the by-election after the party leader
spoke with Davis.


3. (C/NF) The move by Davis was unexpected and left much of
Whitehall stunned. Senior Tory MPs told Poloff June 11 that
they expected PM Gordon Brown would win the day and have his
counterterrorism bill (with the 42 day extension) passed by
the House of Commons. They also said Brown's victory "would
be hollow" as the bill would be opposed in the House of Lords
and challenged in the courts. Davis said as much in his
resignation speech. He also posited that the Prime Minister
could not overcome resistance from the House of Lords through
the use of the Parliament Act (by which a PM can effectively
"veto" a House of Lords decision that blocks legislation
previewed in a government's election manifesto),arguing that
the 42-day extension was not included in Brown's Labour Party
manifesto and that therefore the Parliament Act could not
then be invoked. Davis' maneuver changed the narrow focus
from Brown's victory, combined with the story that one of his
senior officials left highly classified documents on a public
train, to Tory disarray.

4. (S/NF) Comment: While the resignation made for some high
drama, the practical result is limited. It did bring to the
fore that party disunity in not exclusive to Labor, and David
Cameron will have his hands full maintaining Tory cohesion
until the next national elections.

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