Harman weighs into Liberty chief 'smears' row

Ready to sue: Shami Chakrabarti is not satisfied with Andy Burnham's response after his

Commons leader Harriet Harman today joined in the row over Shami Chakrabarti, saying the civil liberties chief should never have allied herself to David Davis.

Ms Harman also made a strong defence of Culture Secretary Andy Burnham over allegations that he had "smeared" the Liberty director for her links to the ex-Tory MP, who resigned his Commons seat of Haltemprice and Howden - and his post of shadow home secretary - to force a by-election and debate over the Government's 42- day detention rule for terror suspects.

Ms Harman was a former legal officer for the National Council for Civil Liberties before it renamed itself Liberty. She told ITV News today that Mr Davis's backing for capital punishment made clear he was not a civil libertarian.

"When it comes to David Davis, he's an unlikely champion of civil liberties and certainly when I was at Liberty I did not support people who opposed the Human Rights Act and were in favour of the death penalty," she said. The Standard revealed yesterday that Mr Burnham is being threatened with legal action by Ms Chakrabarti over his remark that she shared "late night, hand-wringing, heart-melting phone calls" with Mr Davis as they campaigned to oppose the Government's anti-terror plans.

Ms Harman said that Mr Burnham had apologised and that should be the end of the matter. Mr Burnham's spokeswoman last night said the Culture Secretary expressed his "regret" for any offence caused, though none had been intended.

But Ms Chakrabarti's office said his response did not go far enough. Her spokeswoman said: "That's not an apology, in her view."

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