Davis: My Cabinet career is over
Friday, 20 June 2008 12:00 AM
David Davis has admitted his Cabinet career is almost certainly over.
Asked on the BBC's Question Time whether he would return to the Cabinet, Mr Davis initially dodged the question, but then, with alarming honesty, said: "I made a calculation before I did this that it would cost me certain things.
"One was my career in the Cabinet - that seemed to me a cost that, although I regret it, I probably had to meet.
"If I was given my job back, I think I'd take it - I don't think I'll be offered," he admitted.
The comment comes as Mr Davis' ally in the fight against 42-day detention, Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti, threatened Cabinet member Andy Burnham with a lawsuit unless he apologised for comments suggesting she and Mr Davis were romantically linked.
Writing in Prospect magazine, Mr Burnham, who is tipped by some to be a future Labour leader, said: "To people who get seduced by Tory talk of how liberal they are, I find something very curious in the man who was, and still is I believe, an exponent of capital punishment having late-night, hand-wringing, heart-melting phone calls with Shami Chakrabarti."
Ms Chakrabarti, who is married, wrote Mr Burnham a strongly worded letter, copying in both the prime minister and the attorney general.
"In that article you set out to smear my dealings with the former shadow home secretary," she wrote.
"I find this behaviour curious, coming as it does from a Cabinet minister, let alone someone with a partner and family of his own. By your comments you debase not only a great office of state but the vital debate about fundamental rights and freedoms in this country.
"Indeed you seem reluctant to engage in that debate except in this tawdry fashion," she continued.
"I look forward to your written apology as I'm sure does Mrs Davis. If on the other hand you choose to continue down the path of innuendo and attempted character assassination, you will find that the privileged legal protection of the parliament chamber does not extend to slurs made in the wider public domain. The fruits of any legal action will of course go to Liberty."
It has transpired the Mr Davis did indeed share at least one phone call with the Liberty director before he announced his resignation telling her his plan. But it's understood she advised him against the course of action.
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