Cabinet heavyweights miss vote

The Prime Minister said there was "no greater priority" than getting the legislation through.

So where were his Cabinet colleagues during a crucial vote on the terror laws last night?

While bleary-eyed Lords in their eighties stayed up all night, at least four key members of the Prime Minister's team were nowhere to be seen at a 3am vote.

Chancellor Gordon Brown, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, Education Secretary Ruth Kelly and Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon all failed to stay the distance.

According to official records, the chairman of the Labour party, Ian McCartney, also missed the vote - though aides insist there has been a mistake and he was there. Ms Kelly had special permission from Labour whips to miss the vote because she had an "early flight" ahead of a visit to schools near her Bolton constituency. She was flying back today to rejoin the debate.

But today aides for Mr Brown, Mr Prescott and Mr Hoon admitted they had "no idea" why their bosses were not there.

Meanwhile, former cabinet minister Clare Short stunned colleagues when she said today that Labour's huge majority was undermining democracy.

The Lords, where Tory, Liberal Democrat and crossbench peers outnumber Labour members, was more representative, she said.

Francis Pym, Margaret Thatcher's foreign secretary, was sacked after he declared in 1983 that landslide majorities were bad for democracy.