Britain: Tony Blair will battle to overcome another Labour rebellion in the Commons today after the House of Lords inflicted a further damaging defeat on his government's new anti-terrorism Bill.
By a massive majority of 187 the Lords backed the Conservative-sponsored demand for the insertion of a "sunset clause", which would see the new legislation - providing for a range of control orders to be imposed on terror suspects up to and including house arrest - automatically expire at the end of November.
The vote came after a series of defeats on key provisions of home secretary Charles Clarke's Bill prompted ministerial hints of a government retreat.
However, the signal from Downing Street last night was that the prime minister was determined to overcome internal Labour resistance and to seek a Commons rejection of the proposed sunset clause and other Lords' amendments.
Mr Blair's spokesman said to accept the Tory amendment would be "a sign of weakness" and "send out the wrong message to the police" who would have to enforce the new law.
Home Office minister Baroness Scotland told the Lords: "The government's view is that a sunset clause would not be appropriate. The Bill should not be seen as a very short stopgap."
However, Baroness (Shirley) Williams for the Liberal Democrats said the clause was "crucial" to ensure that the legislation had the necessary widespread support.
Conservative shadow home secretary Lord Kingsland argued: "Parliament has spent the last 700 years protecting our liberties. It seems outrageous that we should be asked to allow an open-ended right to remove the most fundamental of them from our statute book."