THE BRITISH home secretary Jacqui Smith has insisted that the British government has not struck a deal with the DUP to ensure that its nine MPs will vote for the Bill to extend the period terrorism suspects can be detained without charge from 28 to 42 days.
Ms Smith said "absolutely not" when asked yesterday had the British government pledged £200 million in extra funding to the Northern Executive in exchange for the DUP votes on Wednesday.
Such is the internal British Labour opposition to the Bill that the vote could be lost without the support of the DUP.
However, SDLP leader Mark Durkan said the British government had told him a deal with the DUP was not ruled out. He said his party's three MPs would oppose the 42-day detention and also the plans to hold some inquests in secret. He suspected the British government was intent on introducing a form of internment.
"It is clear that the government wants to salami slice our civil liberties. First they wanted detention for seven days, then 14, now 42. And it won't stop there. One of the most senior police officers in Britain has called for people to be detained without charge 'for as long as it takes'. That's internment by any other name," he said.
"Instead of inching towards internment, the British government should be reforming the law so that those who are involved in terrorist atrocities are charged and tried. It stands justice on its head to lock people up for weeks without charge - and flies in the face of human rights," he added.
Mr Durkan said the SDLP has also put down amendments opposing plans for secret inquests.
"In a throwback to the old Stormont regime's Special Powers Act, these proposals mean that a secretary of state can sack a jury at an inquest at any time for almost any reason. So families who suffered secret state murders now face secret inquests into them. This only adds further insult to the very deep injury that these families have already suffered."
