EAST Lancashire's MPs were split down the middle when it came to last night's vote in the House of Commons on 90-day detention for terror suspects.

The vote brought a first humiliating defeat for Prime Minister Tony Blair, as MPs decided a 90-day period was unacceptable.

While Rossendale and Darwen's Janet Anderson, and Hyndburn's Greg Pope backed their leader, Pendle MP Gordon Prentice joined the ranks of the 49 Labour rebels to help bring about defeat for the government.

Politicans in favour of the 90-day period in which terror suspects could be held without charge - who included Blackburn MP and foreign Secretary Jack Straw - insisted there was a compelling case for such a law.

They told us how police believed only a 90-day detention period was sufficient to gather evidence, but Michael Howard, leader of the Conservative Party, quite rightly pointed out that it is the police's job to enforce the law, not to write it.

Indeed, surely the police need to have serious suspicion of criminal activity to arrest in the first place - and surely our special branch officers are sophisticated enough to monitor suspects upon their release.

Doubling the length of time a suspect can be held to 28 days appears a suitable compromise, and the law can be altered in the future should a stronger case in support of 90 days emerge.

But given the recent apparent abuse of current anti-terrorism legislation - namely the arrest of Labour veteran Walter Wolfgang after he dared to shout 'rubbish' at Jack Straw during a Labour conference speech - giving the police the right to detain people for 90 days is a fundamental erosion of our civil liberties.