In June 2008, the Conservative MP and shadow home secretary David Davis resigned his seat in Haltemprice and Howden to protest a parliamentary vote on the counter-terrorism bill to extend the maximum detention of terror suspects without charge. Davis wanted to defend civil liberties; he labelled the by-election contest the David Davis for Freedom campaign. He won over 70 per cent of the vote after no established candidates stood against him.
Many fondly recall David Davis’s website for his Tory leadership campaign of 2001. It featured Davis in a vest, hanging by a rope from a cliff edge. As if that were not enough, underneath was a quotation from Frederick “Freddie” Forsyth comparing Davis with Bruce Willis or somebody like that.
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