Desperate Brown scrapes through on 42 days

A desperate Gordon Brown won his battle last night to let police hold terrorist suspects for 42 days without charge, but was forced to rely on the support of the Democratic Unionists and a string of extraordinary concessions to his backbenchers to save the vote, and possibly his premiership.

The beleaguered PM was accused of trading civil liberties in a "grubby bazaar", accepting a shopping list of demands from the unionists and offering a range of promises on backbenchers' pet projects.

Brown had staked his personal authority on winning the vote, but 36 of his backbenchers joined the SNP in the No lobby, slashing his theoretical 66-seat majority.

The SNP claimed the vote was the 'worst of all outcomes' for Gordon Brown as he could no longer rely on his own MPs for a parliamentary majority.

SNP MP Pete Wishart said: “Labour comprehensively lost the argument but narrowly won the vote only because of DUP help. So desperate were the Government that there may well have been a heavy price tag for this hollow victory.

“Whips bullied and cajoled Labour rebels but even after this effort they still needed DUP votes to secure victory. Labour members should be ashamed of selling out our civil liberties.

“In the course of the debate the case for 42 days was not proven, and this is an extremely sad day for civil liberties and community relations in Scotland.”