David Davis resigns
David Davis has sent ripples through the Westminster village and announced he is to resign as an MP triggering a by-election on the issue of 42 days terror detention. He says he felt he needed to take a stand on the ‘database society’ so that people can have an oppportunity to show Labour how unpopular the plans are.
It is clear in my mind that Mr Davis is a man of principle and laying down his seat is the greatest sacrifice that can be made to show he is sticking to his principles. Not many expected this move and it has come as a complete shock to many. He is clearly quite angry about something and perhaps he has fallen out of favour with the leadership of the party. Whatever the reason, I think it is important to point out that in an age where so many MPs are just career politicians, in David Davis, we have a decent and honourable member of society who will stick to his principles even if it costs him his job.
CCHQ has announced that Dominic Grieve will replace Davis as Shadow Home Secretary. The Lib Dems have confirmed they will not field a candidate so that Mr Davis can have a clear run against Labour.
In his statement, Mr Davis said:
Up until yesterday, I took the view that what we did in the House of Commons representing our constituents was a noble endeavour because with centuries or forebears we defended the freedoms of the British people. Well we did up until yesterday.
This Sunday is the anniversary of Magna Carta – the document that guarantees that most fundamental of British freedoms – Habeus Corpus.
The right not to be imprisoned by the state without charge or reason. Yesterday this house decided to allow the state to lock up potentially innocent British citizens for up to six weeks without charge.
Now the counter terrorism bill will in all probability be rejected by the House of Lords very firmly. After all, what should they be there for if not to defend Magna Carta.
But because the impetus behind this is essentially political – not security – the government will be tempted to use the Parliament Act to over-rule the Lords. It has no democratic mandate to do this since 42 days was not in its manifesto.
Its legal basis is uncertain to say the least. But purely for political reasons, this government’s going to do that. And because the generic security arguments relied on will never go away – technology, development and complexity and so on, we’ll next see 56 days, 70 days, 90 days.
But in truth, 42 days is just one – perhaps the most salient example – of the insidious, surreptitious and relentless erosion of fundamental British freedoms.
And we will have shortly, the most intrusive identity card system in the world.
A CCTV camera for every 14 citiziens, a DNA database bigger than any dictatorship has, with 1000s of innocent children and a million innocent citizens on it.
We have witnessed an assault on jury trials – that balwark against bad law and its arbitrary use by the state. Short cuts with our justice system that make our system neither firm not fair.
And the creation of a database state opening up our private lives to the prying eyes of official snoopers and exposing our personal data to careless civil servants and criminal hackers.
The state has security powers to clamp down on peaceful protest and so-called hate laws that stifle legitimate debate – while those who incite violence get off Scot free.
This cannot go on, it must be stopped. And for that reason, I feel that today it’s incumbent on me to take a stand.
I will be resigning my membership of the House and I intend to force a by-election in Haltemprice and Howden.
Now I’ll not fight it on the government’s general record – there’s no point repeating Crewe and Nantwich. I won’t fight it on my personal record. I am just a piece in this great chess game.
I will fight it, I will argue this by-election, against the slow strangulation of fundamental British freedoms by this government.
Now, that may mean I’ve made my last speech to the House – it’s possible. And of course that would be a matter of deep regret to me. But at least my electorate, and the nation as a whole, would have had the opportunity to debate and consider one of the most fundamental issues of our day – the ever-intrusive power of the state into our lives, the loss of privacy, the loss of freedom and the steady attrition undermining the rule of law.
And if they do send me back here it will be with a single, simple message: that the monstrosity of a law that we passed yesterday will not stand. 
David Cameron spoke to reporters shortly afterwards and said:
“This is a personal decision for David Davis. He is a friend and colleague and I will be happy to campaign for him in his constituency. I pay tribute to the campaign he has been waging on behalf of the Party on 42 days. But we cannot put Home Affairs on pause and it is my job to ensure that we have a team that’s ready for Government. We remain fully committed to our opposition to 42 days and the new Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve will step up our efforts to fight against it in Parliament.”
More later.
