Brown bouyed by public backing

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she was hopeful of victory in a crunch vote on Wednesday, when Labour rebels are threatening to inflict the first Commons defeat of Gordon Brown's premiership.

She denied that the Government has done a deal with the Democratic Unionist Party to secure the support of their nine MPs in return for millions of pounds in extra funding for Northern Ireland.

With the result resting on a knife-edge, the DUP votes - and those of a few Tory MPs planning to back the Government - could make the difference between defeat and victory for Mr Brown.

Shadow home secretary David Davis claimed that Labour whips were turning Wednesday's division into a vote of confidence in the Prime Minister by telling potential rebels that if Mr Brown loses, they will get Foreign Secretary David Miliband as leader on Thursday.

Mr Brown goes into the vote - which he has indicated he does not regard as a confidence issue - at his lowest ebb in the polls, with a Sunday Telegraph survey showing Labour on 26%, against 42% for the Conservatives and 21% for the Liberal Democrats.

But the same poll found 65% of voters back the PM's plan to increase maximum detention before charge from 28 days to 42, against just 30% who support Tory leader David Cameron's position of retaining the existing limit.

Mr Brown's close Cabinet ally Ed Balls said the finding showed the PM's position was in tune with the public mood, even if it was causing him problems in Parliament.

"On the 42 day issue, we could very easily have ducked as a Government, walked away and said it is too difficult," he told Sky News' Sunday Live. "It is about making the difficult choice and it is massively supported by the public in this poll."

Asked if she expected the measure to get through the Commons, Ms Smith told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show: "I certainly hope it does because I believe it is the right thing to do."