Published Date: 14 October 2008 Ministers are surveying the wreckage of their plans to extend pre-charge terror detention to 42 days after dropping them in the face of a crushing House of Lords defeat. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced the climbdown in an emergency statement to MPs shortly after the proposal was thrown out by a massive majority of 191 in the upper chamber. Her proposal that it would instead be the subject of a separate Bill to be put to Parliament if needed in an emergency was dismissed by opponents as a figleaf. And Labour critics warned that any such attempt to revive it was doomed to failure. Speculation had been rife that the measure, which previously scraped through the Commons by just nine votes thanks to backing by the Democratic Unionist MPs, would be dumped by the Government. Ministers will hope...
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