Kelvin MacKenzie of Commons in order to fight a by-election as a protest against the Labour government's plans for 42-day detention without charge for terrorist suspects, MacKenzie announced that he was likely to contest the election on a pro-42-day detention platform, stating: "I have been associated with "The Sun" for 30 years. "The Sun" is very, very hostile to David Davis because of his 28 day stance and "The Sun" has always been very up for 42 days and perhaps even 420 days". Off-camera, before a BBC interview, MacKenzie referred to Hull, which the Haltemprice and Howden constituency borders, as "an absolute
2008 Haltemprice and Howden by-election constituency for the Conservatives since its creation in 1997, and previously held the predecessor seat of Boothferry from 1987. The area of the seat, variously covered in the past by parts of Boothferry, Howden, Haltemprice, Howdenshire and East Riding of Yorkshire, has been consistently represented by Conservative MPs since the 1837 general election. Davis's majority fell back to 4.3% in the 2001 general election and the seat became a Liberal Democrat target. However, Davis increased his majority to 10.7% in the 2005 general election. The nature of Davis's resignation resulted in a number of by-election records and unusual occurrences. Most