LONDON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair has insisted his authority is intact following a crucial parliamentary defeat on his anti-terror proposals that led to calls for his resignation.
Forty-nine Labor members of Parliament joined forces with opposition parties Wednesday to overturn a government proposal to detain terrorism suspects without charge for up to 90 days.
The 322-291 defeat was the first time the government lost a parliamentary vote since taking office in 1997. MPs then approved an amendment to reduce the detention period to 28 days, by 323 to 290 votes.
Blair said he did not believe the defeat would affect his position as prime minister.
"I don't think it is a matter of my authority -- of course I would have preferred to have won rather than lost," he told the BBC.
The police had argued a "compelling" case for extending detention to 90 days from the present 14 days, he said, adding though MPs had a right to vote against the proposal, it was "a wrong decision.
"I just hope in a longer time we don't rue it."
Conservative Leader Michael Howard said the defeat showed Blair's authority had reached "vanishing point," and called for him to quit.
"It's a very important issue. It's a very serious issue and what today has shown is that he no longer has the authority to carry his party on important issues of this kind," he said.
Liberal Democrat Leader Charles Kennedy said he hoped Blair would "learn the lesson from this" and realize he had to rule in a more consultative and consensual style.
"He'll be increasingly seen as a lame duck and lack conviction, credibility and the persuasion that a prime minister needs to take people with him," he said.
Blair turned the vote into an issue of his personal authority, Kennedy added.
Blair wants to implement wide-ranging and radical reforms in public services before his departure from Downing Street, which he insists will be at the end of his third term in 2009. However, many Labor MPs have already signaled they will oppose the plans, and Wednesday night's defeat has underlined how real a threat to Blair's agenda that opposition poses.
Former Health Secretary Frank Dobson, who opposed the terror plans, said: "Quite a number of people who voted with the government told me that there is no question of them supporting the education white paper (reforms) or plans to privatize parts of the National Health Service."
The scale of the parliamentary defeat was staggering. The government took the unusual decision to summon two Cabinet ministers -- Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw -- home from overseas trips to vote Wednesday, suggesting it believed the vote was on a knife-edge.
Blair's decision to stand by his proposal despite widespread opposition was also seen as an indication of his belief he had the votes to carry it. Last week, the government postponed the ballot and promised to make concessions after winning a previous vote on the bill with a majority of one.
After talks with his opposition counterparts Monday, Home Secretary Charles Clarke announced he would propose a shorter period of detention. However, after Blair addressed the Parliamentary Labor Party Monday evening, Clarke said the government would stick with its original proposal.
Clarke denied Thursday he had been overruled by the prime minister, saying it was his decision to stand by the 90-day plan.
"There was no reluctance in the relationship between myself and prime minister," he said.
He rejected suggestions that Blair's authority had been damaged, saying the prime minister was disappointed at the defeat but was in "very strong, very ebullient form," he reported.
Blair could still get his public service reforms through, he said; it was only a "small group" of Labor MPs who would oppose them.
Labor's David Winnick, who proposed the 28-day amendment, said its approval had nothing to do with Blair's authority. He said Blair had "full enthusiastic support" from the majority of Labor MPs, and he advised any "clique" that might be plotting against the prime minister to "take a running jump."
The government faces the prospect of further damage when the bill goes to the House of Lords, which will likely decide to water down the legislation further.
Many members of Parliament's upper chamber -- where Labor has no majority -- will oppose a proposed offense of encouraging or glorifying terrorism, which critics say is unacceptably broad and will criminalize political dissent.
The offense would apply to any statement of support for violence against people or property designed to influence a government anywhere in the world, including oppressive regimes. Support for resistance against dictators would therefore be illegal and punishable with up to seven years in prison.
Liberty Human Rights Director Shami Chakrabarti told United Press International the measure was "completely unacceptable" and "counterproductive."
It would alienate many British Muslims who would want to speak vociferously about Middle Eastern politics, she said.
"They're not people who are blowing people up on the underground or who are at all sympathetic to that. But you're alienating people who are your natural allies and turning them into enemies by criminalizing them."
A further defeat would be devastating for Blair who awoke to a savaging by the national media Thursday. The Daily Telegraph labeled it "Blair's Blackest Day," while the Independent described it as "Moment Tony Blair lost his authority."
Even the Times of London, owned by long-term Blair supporter Rupert Murdoch, asked if it was the "Beginning of the end?"
