Comment: public response to my stand proves this debate is vital

Last week Gordon Brown bribed and bullied MPs into voting to extend the power to imprison people without charge from 28 to 42 days. He failed to provide a shred of evidence that it was necessary to fight terrorism, and brushed aside security warnings that it may prove counter-productive.

For now, the tactic has worked. But he paid a heavy price. His Parliamentary authority is in tatters, having failed to hold together a Labour majority. And his moral authority is in the gutter after the shabby deals it took to get the vote through.

I resigned on principle and I am delighted that, as well as support from David Cameron (despite what you might read in some of the papers), Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs have also come out in support of my stance. I am standing against the accumulation - and abuse - of power by the state, at the expense of the fundamental freedoms of the citizen.

Nothing, however, prepared me for the scale of the response from the public. It has been truly humbling, a world apart from the some of the carping around the Westminster village. I have been inundated with thousands of messages of support. A survey in my constituency defied the pollsters, who say the public don't care about liberty and privacy - with 69 per cent supporting my decision.

Many of those who contacted me say they are traditional Labour supporters, disillusioned that Mr Brown - and his government - have presided over the relentless erosion of our freedoms. This week I am setting up a website to kickstart a popular debate on these important issues.

Government ministers have dismissed my campaign as a stunt. That is a bit rich, given the farcical vote on 42 days. Kelvin MacKenzie claims the by-election is a waste of taxpayers' money. But he overlooks the Big Brother state's expensive tastes - like the £19billion wasted on ID cards. The bloated state has abused its power, but also burnt a hole in the taxpayer's pocket. A national debate is long overdue.

"One of the great values of being a British citizen," Baroness Kennedy wrote at the weekend, "is the strong sense that we are not here at the behest of the state; the state is here at our behest." I could not agree more. But under this government, that equation has been reversed.

As citizens, we have become subject to ever greater monitoring, surveillance and intrusion. Yesterday Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary, said he was "staggered" by my criticisms of CCTV, claiming it is vital for fighting crime and counter-terrorism. I am not against all CCTV. But the current approach is just daft. This Government has spent about half a billion pounds on CCTV - we have more cameras than any other country in the world, one for every 14 citizens. Yet the police say 80 per cent of CCTV footage is of poor quality, particularly for identifying criminals. Mr Burnham mentioned the role of CCTV in identifying the 21/7 bombers. But after the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes there was no usable footage from any of the CCTV cameras on the bus, Tube or at Stockwell station.

If Mr Burnham really wants to defend his Government's record in creating a surveillance society, I challenge him to come to Yorkshire and debate it before the voters. But I won't hold my breath. It is easier to snipe from the sidelines.

Mr Brown has barred the local candidate from running - not least because he agrees with my position on 42 days, along with many Labour MPs. The truth is that Mr Brown is a bottler who fears the will of the people.

He bottled the General Election when it looked like he could not beat David Cameron. He bottled a referendum on the EU constitution, because he feared he would not win it. Now he is bottling this by-election in Haltemprice and Howden - one place you certainly cannot buy off the voters.

No matter. It is clear from the support I have received from across the political spectrum, and more importantly the country at large, that this is a national debate we can - and must - have.

* The website www.daviddavisforfreedom.com is launched tomorrow.