More than half of the Shadow Cabinet are snubbing David Davis's "freedom" by-election campaign, it emerged today.

As David Cameron prepared to make his first and only visit to Mr Davis's former constituency of Haltemprice and Howden, at least 16 out of 25 of his former colleagues have decided against making the trip north.

The Tory leader and Mr Davis were set to visit a school to talk to sixth-formers about the civil liberties issues which the former shadow home secretary has made the focus of the 10 July vote.

Mr Cameron said last week that there had been an "honest disagreement" between them over Mr Davis's shock decision to quit and signalled he could not tolerate anyone who undermined party unity. Mr Davis looks set to spend the rest of his career on the backbenches.

Several of Mr Davis's former colleagues have been critical of his decision to trigger a by-election, claiming it risked distracting from the Government's woes. But his supporters say his stand has boosted the Tories' popularity among Labour and Lib Dem voters.

Labour today accused Mr Cameron of seeking to make the police fight crime "with one hand tied behind their back", because of his support for Mr Davis's campaign against the increased use of CCTV and the national DNA database.

Neither Labour nor the Liberal Democrats are putting forward a candidate in the by-election.

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