BRITAIN: British Tory leader David Cameron signalled yesterday that there would be no return for David Davis to the shadow cabinet following his by-election victory in Haltemprice and Howden on Thursday night.
Mr Cameron said that while he was "delighted" by the former shadow home secretary's win, he already had a "very strong shadow cabinet".
Mr Davis vowed to continue his fight for civil liberties, after fighting the by-election on the issue of 42-day pre-charge detention for terror suspects, but insisted he would not become a "single issue campaigner".
He said he expected his successor as shadow home secretary, Dominic Grieve, to continue to oppose government plans for ID cards, and was confident that the Conservative manifesto at the next election would commit the party to scrapping them.
Asked whether Mr Davis would be returned to the front bench, Mr Cameron said: "Obviously, I will talk to him about what the future holds, but I have a very strong shadow cabinet. David is a very strong Conservative and a very big figure in our party and I'm sure there are all sorts of ways in which he will be able to contribute."
Mr Davis swept back to Westminster with a 15,355 majority over 25 fringe candidates in yesterday's vote. The closest to him was the Green candidate, with 1,758 votes. Neither Labour nor the Liberal Democrats fought the by-election, and turnout was less than 35 per cent.
But Mr Davis nonetheless said he believed the by-election had raised public awareness of civil liberty issues. He pledged to continue to challenge the government from the backbenches, not only on pre-charge detention, but also on its plans to introduce ID cards and the operation of the national DNA database.
Mr Davis told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "There is going to be a whole series of issues which relate to the erosion of freedoms in this country and I will be able to make these arguments firmly and strongly - and I won't be the only one."
However, home office minister Tony McNulty dismissed Mr Davis as "a busted flush" after the by-election, which Labour believed should not have been held at taxpayers' expense.