Prime Minister Gordon Brown has narrowly won a House of Commons vote on extending the maximum time police can hold terror suspects to 42 Canada's foreign minister quits ...
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It appears 37 Labour MPs joined forces with Conservative and Lib Dems to vote against the proposals.

But that was not enough to defeat the plan ministers claim is needed to deal with complex terror plots.

It was passed by 315 MPs to 306 votes. It will come as a big boost to Mr Brown after his recent troubles.

Cheers rang out as the result was announced to a packed Commons chamber after a five-hour debate.

But there were also angry shouts from Conservative opponents of the move, protesting about the role of DUP MPs, who were believed to have backed the government.

'Very tight'

Speaker Michael Martin had to intervene to restore order and quell the barracking.

Downing Street had earlier again forecast that the outcome of the vote was looking "very, very tight".

Facing one of the biggest tests of his leadership, the Prime Minister had been personally calling Labour MPs to make the case for the extension.

In a sign of how tight the situation was, Foreign Secretary David Miliband had to cut short a visit to Israel to attend the crucial divisions in Westminster.

One of the Labour rebels, John McDonnell, said: "Any attempt to present this as some sort of victory for the government will ring absolutely hollow.

"There will be widespread consternation among our supporters in the country seeing a Labour government prepared to use every tactic available in its determination to crush essential civil liberties, which have been won by the labour movement over generations."

Veteran former Labour MP Tony Benn said: "I never thought I would be in the House of Commons on the day Magna Carta was repealed".

He said he hoped it would be overturned in the House of Lords.

(BBC)

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