Fresh blow for British PM over anti-terror plans

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

LONDON, June 12, 2008 (AFP) — The British government's widely-opposed plans to hold suspected extremists for up to six weeks took a new twist Thursday, as a senior opposition figure resigned to fight a by-election on the issue.

The unprecedented decision by Conservative Party home affairs spokesman David Davis gives Prime Minister Gordon Brown another electoral headache, after crushing defeats at local polls and a by-election last month.

Brown's Labour Party already faces certain defeat in the Tory stronghold of Henley, near Oxford, southern England, later this month, where the seat is vacant after Boris Johnson became the new London mayor.

Another defeat -- likely as Davis had a comfortable 5,116 majority at the last general election in June 2005 -- and...