See the Labour whips' full list of MPs' voting intentions on 42-day detention

A SECRET blacklist of Labour MPs suspected of plotting to defeat Gordon Brown’s flagship terror reforms has been drawn up by the party’s whips. The rebel group redoubles the threat to Brown, who is already facing a revolt over his scrapping of the 10p tax rate for the low-paid.

The nine-page dossier, compiled earlier this year and seen by The Sunday Times, reveals bitter differences within Labour over plans to detain suspected terrorists for up to 42 days without trial. It shows that Labour’s whips fear at least 50 of the party’s MPs - including 10 former ministers - will vote against the government. A further 44 are undecided.

At least one government minister and six government aides are also revealed to have grave doubts about the draconian extension of police powers. One minister, Joan Ruddock, is said to feel that the 42-day limit has been “plucked from thin air”. Nonetheless she is expected to back it. Another MP is recorded as thinking the measure is “barmy” even though he, too, will vote for it.

With both the Tories and the Liberal Democrats promising to vote against the terror bill, the list indicates that Brown is facing defeat by at least 20 votes. His government has a majority of 66.

Whips of all parties prefer to operate in the shadows, and the leak exposes their contempt for some MPs and their cynical efforts to muster a majority for Brown.

One MP, John Cummings, is described as “usually persuadable”; Fiona Mactaggart is described as “volatile” and the whips claim Tony Wright, the MP for Great Yarmouth, “will do what security services want”.

They claim that one rebel, Bill Etherington, “could be persuaded to stay away”. Another one of those who is said in the document to be “not happy” with the bill is Angela Smith, the previously loyal government aide who threatened to quit last week over the government’s decision to double the rate of income tax for the low-paid from 10p to 20p.

Smith, a parliamentary private secretary to Yvette Cooper, the treasury chief secretary, triggered panic in the prime minister’s office by her threat to resign. She was only talked out of it by Brown himself, who interrupted his trip to Washington to beg her to stay.

The whips put a question mark over Smith’s voting intentions on the issue of detention for 42 days. They note that she “wants clear evidence and [is] not happy with parliamentary oversight” - a reference to plans in the bill to give MPs a vote on individual cases where suspects are to be held for longer than the current 28-day limit.

Worryingly for Brown, a total of six government aides are identified by question marks in the document as potential rebels. The others include Chris Bryant, PPS to Harriet Harman, the deputy leader of the Labour party, and Lyn Brown, PPS to John Denham, the universities secretary. The whips’ note states that she was “unsure” about the government’s previous extension of the detention period to 28 days, even though she came down in favour of the government.

A question mark also appears against the name of Mark Lazarowicz, an aide to David Cairns, a Scotland Office minister. According to the whips he “has a problem” with the bill.

Madeleine Moon, PPS to Jim Knight, the schools minister, and Judy Mallaber, a PPS to Baroness Ashton, leader of the House of Lords, are also named as waverers.

The disclosure of the list follows a report last week of a looming cabinet rift over the plans for detention for 42 days. Jack Straw, the justice secretary, is said to be actively opposed.

David Davis, shadow home secretary, said Labour was split from the cabinet down over the proposed legislation. He said the list reflected the true scale of the threat to Brown’s leadership.

“This list confirms what we have suspected. This is a bill without friends even in the Labour party,” he said.

Davis said compromises offered by ministers to try to bring the Tories on board would be dismissed out of hand. “They are merely cosmetic concessions and do nothing to either defend liberty or defeat terrorism,” he said.

Others are expected by whips to vote for it even if they are opposed to it in private. Among these are Andy Slaughter, a government aide to the maverick foreign office minister Lord Malloch-Brown and to Lord Jones, the business minister.

While the whips say that Slaughter, the Labour MP for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd’s Bush, is expected to toe the line, they note: “Will support but thinks barmy.”

Gavin Strang, a former transport minister, is said to be “very unhappy” about the bill “but may well vote okay”. Khalid Mahmood, MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, is said to be inclined to vote yes. But the whips note menacingly: “Need to watch.”

Among the 10 former ministers said by the whips to have expressed outright opposition to the bill are Glenda Jackson and the former cabinet ministers Frank Dobson and Michael Meacher. Among the further 40 names against which the whips have placed question marks are nine former ministers.

The whips have clearly considered deploying Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, to sweet-talk waverers and rebels in person. But the dossier implies that she is unlikely to carry sufficient persuasive clout to change some MPs’ views, though these may have changed since the list was compiled.

A note next to the name of Rudi Vis, MP for Finchley and Golders Green, reads: “Don’t think meeting Jacqui Smith three times will make difference.”

Austin Mitchell, a former Labour whip and a now self-confessed terror bill rebel, has been on the receiving end of some of the whips’ tactics.

“There is an air of panic among the whips about the terror bill,” he said. “The bill is Gordon Brown trying to show he is going to be as tough as Tony Blair. He has got to show he can get the legislation through.

“The whips are getting edgy, partly because their heart isn’t in it. They know the bill is going to be defeated.”

Additional reporting: Anna Mikhailova and Hannah Gilkes

THE TARGETS

THE REBELS

The following MPs have “N” marked against their name on the whips’ list:

Diane Abbott; Nick Ainger; John Austin; Karen Buck; Martin Caton; Colin Challen; Katy Clark; Ann Clwyd; Jeremy Corbyn; Jim Devine; Andrew Dismore; Frank Dobson; Frank Doran; Gwyneth Dunwoody, since deceased; Bill Etherington; Mark Fisher; Paul Flynn; Neil Gerrard; Ian Gibson; Roger Godsiff; John Grogan; David Hamilton; Kelvin Hopkins; Glenda Jackson; Lynne Jones; Peter Kilfoyle; Chris McCafferty; Bob Marshall-Andrews; John McDonnell; Michael Meacher; Austin Mitchell; Julie Morgan; George Mudie; Chris Mullin; Gordon Prentice; Mohammad Sarwar; Jim Sheridan; Alan Simpson; Dennis Skinner; Peter Soulsby; David Taylor; Emily Thornberry; Mark Todd; Jon Trickett; Des Turner; Keith Vaz; Rudi Vis; Bob Wareing; David Winnick; Michael Wood

THE WAVERERS

The following MPs have a question mark against their name:

Graham Allen; John Battle; Hugh Bayley; Anne Begg; Roger Berry; Lyn Brown; Chris Bryant; Richard Burden; Colin Burgon; Jim Cousins; Ann Cryer; John Cummings; Ian Davidson; Quentin Davies; Janet Dean; David Drew; Paul Farrelly; Dai Havard; Kate Hoey; Jim Hood; Sian James; Martyn Jones; Sally Keeble; Stephen Ladyman; Mark Lazarowicz; Andy Love; Andrew Mackinlay; Judy Mallaber; Gordon Marsden; Shona McIsaac; Anne Moffat; Madeleine Moon; Elliot Morley; Denis Murphy; Gwyn Prosser; Nick Raynsford; Angela Smith; John Smith; Gavin Strang; Graham Stringer; Paul Truswell; Joan Walley; Betty Williams; Tony Wright

Names are from leaked whips’ document. MPs’ views may have changed since

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