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Davis Resigns U.K. Parliament to Protest Terror Law Kitty Donaldson and Mark Deen June 12 (Bloomberg) -- David Davis, the lawmaker in charge of home affairs policy for Britain's opposition Conservative Party, resigned his seat in Parliament to force an electoral contest over government limits on civil liberties. Davis, 59, will campaign to return to the House of Commons, arguing against Prime Minister Gordon Brown's national identification card program and his plan to let police detain terrorism suspects up to 42 days without charge. ``This is a by-election against the slow strangulation of fundamental British freedoms by this government,'' Davis told journalists today in London.
(Article continues below) The decision undermined efforts by David Cameron to unite the Conservatives against the Labour government since his victory over Davis in a contest to lead the party in 2005. Davis, who favored stronger resistance to Brown's anti-terrorism package, told Cameron about his decision last night. ``This is a distraction that takes the focus of senior Conservatives away from fighting Gordon Brown,'' said Andrew Cooper, chief executive of Populus Ltd., which conducts opinion polls for the Times newspaper. Voters may ``regard it as an annoyance, a selfish thing to do.'' Nationwide, the Conservatives led Labour by 20 percentage points in a Populus poll this week. The Conservative share of the vote in Davis's constituency rose 4.2 percent in 2005. `Risky Strategy' ``It is a little bit of a risky strategy,'' Mark Shephard, a lecturer in politics at the University of Strathclyde, said in an interview. ``It will be another chance for the people to give the government a bloody nose, but if there is an internal split in the Conservative Party, then that is a worry for Cameron.'' Labour lawmakers ridiculed the move as a political stunt. The Liberal Democrats, whose candidate came in second in Davis's constituency of Haltemprice and Howden in northern England two years ago, said they would not contest the by-election. ``Most people will see this as an irresponsible act,'' Tom Watson, a junior Cabinet Office minister, said in an interview. ``It is an unnecessary by-election costing the taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds.'' Davis has held the seat since 1987 and won it with 22,792 votes in 2005, a margin of 5,116 votes over the Liberal Democrats, who came in second. Labour's candidate placed third with 6,104 votes.
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