2008 Haltemprice and Howden by-election that if elected he would refuse to take the oath of allegiance to the Queen in order to take up his seat. He opted to declare neither a party affiliation nor "Independent", so appeared on the ballot paper with no party label. Icke told the VoteWise website he had "no politics", and David Davis had a "lot he doesn't yet see". Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, announced that his party would not field a candidate in the by-election as the issue of civil liberties transcended party politics and the Liberal Democrats supported Davis's position on the issue,
2008 Haltemprice and Howden by-election and criticism from politicians, the public and the media, with "The Sun" newspaper initially considering fielding a candidate to oppose Davis in support of anti-terrorism legislation. The Labour party's non-participation stance attracted specific criticism as appearing to be afraid to debate, following recent poor election results and a record low opinion poll result; while Davis attracted criticism as being vain, wasting public money, and for contesting the issue in his safe seat. Davis, the then Shadow Home Secretary, announced his intention to resign on 12 June 2008, a day after a House of Commons vote passed the Counter-Terrorism Bill, which