Anti-Terror Measure Rejected in Britain

Ann Cryer, one of the Labor members of Parliament who broke ranks, said that she "hated" voting with the Conservative Party against Blair, but that she believed that holding people without charge for 90 days was excessive. She said many Muslims live in her district in West Yorkshire and strongly oppose the law on grounds that it could be used against them unfairly.

"I don't think Tony should stand down as a result of this," Cryer said. "I know he's angry and hurt, but it's a tough old game, politics."

Blair was defiant in defeat Wednesday evening, saying in a BBC interview that, "We were trying to do the right thing for the country."

"What I can't understand," Blair said, "is how we can say, given the strength of the terrorist threat we face, that the civil liberties of a small number of terrorist suspects . . . come before the fundamental civil liberty of this country to protection from terrorism."

"I think it was a wrong decision," Blair said of Wednesday's vote. "I just hope at a later time we don't rue it."

The measure was part of a package of anti-terrorism measures Blair introduced following the deadly subway and bus bombings in London in July.

During a heated exchange in Parliament earlier Wednesday, Blair declared that voting for the measure was "the duty of every member of this house." As he spoke, Conservatives shouted "police state" at Blair, in a session that was testy even by the raucous standards of the House of Commons.

Blair stood by his conviction that the 90-day period was necessary in an era when terrorists use increasingly complex and sophisticated methods. British police officials lobbied for the measure, which polls showed was supported by a majority of the British public.

But a wide range of civil libertarians resisted, saying the measure sacrificed too much personal liberty in the name of security. Leaders of Britain's 1.6 million Muslims also had preached against the provision in mosques.

Blair rejected concerns about the erosion of civil liberties, saying that the proposal called for a judge to review all detentions every seven days. As evidence of the terrorist threat against Britain, the prime minister said Wednesday that police had foiled two planned attacks since the July bombings.

Many analysts believed that Blair's recent insistence on 90 days was merely a bargaining position to rally support, and that ultimately he would compromise rather than risk defeat. But Blair ended that speculation Wednesday, declaring, "Sometimes it is better to lose and do the right thing than win and do the wrong thing."