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Cameron: Davis won't be back in my cabinet
Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor11.07.08
David Cameron made clear today that David Davis would not be returning to the shadow cabinet despite winning his "liberty" by-election.
The Tory leader said he was "delighted" that his former shadow home secretary had been returned to Parliament with a 15,000 majority in Haltemprice and Howden.
But he added: "I will talk to him about what the future holds, but I have a very strong shadow cabinet. David is a very strong Conservative and very big figure in our party and there are all sorts of ways of him contributing in the future."
Mr Cameron pointedly said that Mr Davis's dramatic move to quit as an MP "was a personal decision, not a shadow cabinet decision".
In an ominous warning, Mr Davis said he would not become a " singleissue campaigner" on civil liberties. His remark will spark fears among the Tory leadership that he could prove a dangerous critic on subjects ranging from grammar schools to Europe.
Home Office Minister Tony McNulty said: "This is heightened arrogance from a man who now will be a busted flush on the backbench, and rightly so."
Mr Davis said that the voters had sent the Government a "stunning message" on the erosion of civil liberties.
The former shadow home secretary easily defeated the motley assortment of 25 candidates standing against him - but on a lower turnout and by fewer votes than at the last general election. His 17,113 vote count was smaller than the 22,792 he polled at the 2005 election. Turnout fell by half to 34 per cent, but his majority was a huge 15,355.
Mr Davis said the turnout figure had been highly encouraging given that neither Labour nor the Lib-Dems took part. He won 72 per cent of all votes cast, while the Green Party came second and the Eurosceptic English Democrats party third.
The former shadow home secretary resigned the seat last month to seek re-election on a civil liberties platform after 42-day pre-charge detention for terror suspects was approved by the Commons. Today he accused Gordon Brown of "moral, intellectual and political cowardice". He told BBC Radio 4 that 17,000 people turned out on a rainy day in Yorkshire "because they believed in the campaign". He also revealed that he had tried to get former MI5 chief Eliza Manningham-Buller to speak out earlier against the Government's plans on 42 days. He said that after Baroness Manningham-Buller "savaged" the 42-day law earlier this week, it now "lies in tatters, robbed of any remaining credibility".
Mr Davis, who takes up his Commons seat again on Monday, said his reelection was only the beginning of his campaign. "I do so with a clear mandate to fight Gordon Brown's vision of Big Brother Britain tooth and nail, to stop 42 days in its tracks, to prevent the disaster of ID cards, to protect our personal privacy being ransacked."
Reader views (1)
Davis has a point and Cameron has a point. Camaron needs to play the percentages as he wants to get elected, that I understand. Davis has very unfashionably stepped up and listened to the electorate and as it were, put his seat where his mouth is. Between the two of them there is much potential even if it might be an uneasy alliance. The losers are a Labour government, blinkered into a myopic "we know best" attitude and utterly out of touch with the public who spend their time introducing ill thought out knee jerk laws and policies.
- Steve, Hereford
