Thursday, November 10 2005 14:46 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: In a major shock, British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday (Nov 9, 2005) suffered a dramatic defeat in a knife-edge Commons vote on an anti-terrorism legislation when 322 MPs voted against proposals to allow terror suspects to be held without charge for up to 90 days.

The 31-vote defeat forced the Government to accept a compromise as MPs later voted by 323 votes to 290 to extend the detention period to 28 days from the current 14.

The ruling Labor has a majority of 66 in the House but the defeat of the proposal was due to the backbench revolt over the proposed legislation.

The revolt has dealt a humiliating blow to Blair, who tasted his first Commons defeat since coming to power in 1997.

With 41 Labor MPs said to have voted against the Government, yesterday's vote underlined the Prime Minister's ebbing authority within his own party and highlighted his reduced parliamentary majority.

Earlier in the day, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Chancellor Gordon Brown were forced to cut short their foreign visits to Moscow and Israel and return to be present at the voting.

The Terrorism Bill, drafted in the wake of the July attacks on London's transport system, was ostensibly designed to tackle Muslim extremism.

It also had plans to outlaw training in terrorist camps, encouraging acts of violence and glorifying terrorism. The bill must be approved by upper house of Parliament, the House of Lords, to become law.

Opposition MPs and civil rights groups had said that extending the detention period to 90 days would erode human rights.

Later in the day, Blair rejected calls to quit over the voting down of his draft bill.

"I don't think it's a matter of my authority," Blair told BBC News.

"Of course, I would have preferred to have won rather than lost," he said about the vote.

His comments came after Michael Howard, the leader of the main Conservative opposition, indicated that Blair should 'consider his position' after the defeat.

"This devastating defeat is a searing indictment on his judgement. Blair's authority has been diminished almost to vanishing point. This vote shows he is no longer able to carry his own party with him. He must now consider his position," he said.

Blair retorted saying people of Britain "Will find it very odd that members of parliament, given such a compelling and strong case by police, decided to ignore their and go for a period they thought of themselves without any particular justification for it."