Tory leader David Cameron has signalled that there will be no return for David Davis to the shadow cabinet following his by-election victory in Haltemprice and Howden on Thursday night.
Mr Cameron said that while he was "delighted" by the former shadow home secretary's win, he already had a "very strong shadow cabinet".
Mr Davis has vowed to continue his fight for civil liberties, after fighting the by-election on the issue of 42-day pre-charge detention for terror suspects, but insisted he would not become a "single issue campaigner".
He said he expected his successor as shadow home secretary, Dominic Grieve, to continue to oppose Government plans for ID cards, and was confident that the Conservative manifesto at the next election would commit the party to scrapping them.
Asked whether Mr Davis would be returned to the front bench, Mr Cameron said: "Obviously, I will talk to him about what the future holds, but I have a very strong shadow cabinet.
"David is a very strong Conservative and a very big figure in our party and I'm sure there are all sorts of ways in which he will be able to contribute in the future."
Mr Davis swept back to Westminster with a 15,355 majority over 25 fringe candidates in Thursday's vote.
Neither Labour nor the Liberal Democrats fought the by-election, and turnout was less than 35%.
But Mr Davis nonetheless said he believed the by-election had raised public awareness of civil liberty issues.
He pledged to continue to challenge the Government from the backbenches not only on pre-charge detention, but also its plans to introduce ID cards, the operation of the national DNA database and the growth of the "surveillance society".
