How a leaked Gordon Brown email contradicts Tony McNulty

Labour minister Tony McNulty has been telling the world today how Labour is serious about seeking cross-party consensus on detention without trial, saying (to use the words the BBC reported) that, “This is too serious to leave to partisan politics”.

Sounds reasonable doesn’t it? One slight problem. We know from a leaked email I blogged about last year that this isn’t Gordon Brown’s view. That email – laying out Labour’s key messages for attacking the Liberal Democrats in the next general election – clearly told Labour Party activists to use the detention without trial issue to attack the Liberal Democrats. That sounds to me rather like partisan politics.

The BBC has also reported just how desparate the Government’s search for votes on the issue could be getting, lurching into using money to gain votes:

The government wants to secure the support of the nine Democratic Unionist Party MPs for its plans.

One possibility might be with offers of seats on the intelligence and security select committee.

Or it could be by ensuring income from the sale of surplus Army land in Northern Ireland stays locally, rather than going to the Treasury.