PRESS RELEASE

Defending our civil liberties and human rights: What the votes cast by Yorkshire’s MPs on the 42-day proposed anti-terror Bill says about the state of civil rights and liberty in our region.

The government has won a key House of Commons vote on its controversial proposal to extend the terror detention limit to 42 days, with 315 MPs supporting the measure and 306 opposing it.  Only 3 of the region’s Labour MPs joined their Conservative and Liberal Democrat colleagues to vote against Gordon Brown’s proposals. JUST commends the efforts of Labour MPs Mike Wood (Batley and Spen), Linda Riordan (Halifax) and John Grogan (Selby) for voting to defend civil liberties and human rights.

  Advocates of civil rights in the region were closely monitoring the performance of 4 regional MPs who had previously voted against Tony Blair’s proposals for pre-charge detention of up to 90 days in 2005. Regrettably,  Michael Clapham (Barnsley West and Penistone), Ann Cryer (Keighley), Christine McCafferty (Calder Valley) and George Mudie (Leeds East) chose to vote in favour of the 42 day pre-charge detention plan despite clear misgivings by some members of the police, security and criminal justice services.

 JUST believes that this represents a lost opportunity; had they voted against the 42 day detention plan, Labour would have effectively won by a margin of only 5 instead of 9 votes which it received from the Democratic Unionist Party in alleged back room deals. This would have effectively undermined the detention proposals as the majority of Labour backbenchers would have effectively voted against the plan. 

 JUST’s Director Ratna Lachman said:MPs who voted against the plans showed great courage in standing up to the enormous pressures they were subjected to in an effort to prop up Gordon Brown’s contentious measures. The 42-day proposals are an assault on our hard-worn civil liberties and will do little to earn the trust of communities who already feel under siege. Holding people and not charging them with a criminal offence for over a month on the basis of suspicion rather than hard facts is a direct assault on our democratic values. The battle against terrorism cannot be fought through draconian legislation but through winning hearts and minds. Britain’s unique position as the leader in the league table for holding suspects for a month longer than other Western democracies should shame us as citizens of a country which gave birth to the Magna Carta. 

The battle against extending pre-charge detention will now move to the House of Lords where it looks certain to be thrown out. Although 36 Labour MPs voted against  the government, the disquiet felt by a large number of MPs with the proposed legislation should offer a second opportunity for Yorkshire’s voters to actively lobby their representatives against supporting the plans when it comes back to Parliament.

JUST has compiled a list of how your MP voted to help you to lobby your representative against voting for these regressive powers when it comes back to Parliament next year