In June 2008, the Conservative MP and shadow home secretary David Davis resigned his seat in Haltemprice and Howden to protest a parliamentary vote on the counter-terrorism bill to extend the maximum detention of terror suspects without charge. Davis wanted to defend civil liberties; he labelled the by-election contest the David Davis for Freedom campaign. He won over 70 per cent of the vote after no established candidates stood against him.
Many fondly recall David Davis’s website for his Tory leadership campaign of 2001. It featured Davis in a vest, hanging by a rope from a cliff edge. As if that were not enough, underneath was a quotation from Frederick “Freddie” Forsyth comparing Davis with Bruce Willis or somebody like that.
In 2008, Davis is back on form with the triumphantly named David Davis for Freedom, although he invites the reader to “Follow me on Twitter”, which doesn’t seem very hard after his former McNab-esque approach.
All the attention has no doubt left other Tory MPs fantasising about what their noble cause would be and what they would call the website: “Liam Fox for Leader”, “Ed Vaizey for Tiny Little Skirts”, “Alan Duncan pour Homme”.
A friend of Davis’s says: “No one really gets David – the two closest to him are his wife Doreen, and Ramesh.” His loyal press aide, Ramesh Chhabra, will remain at Conservative Party headquarters to work for Dominic Grieve.
Chhabra is possibly one of Britain’s longest-suffering men, having endured eight years of Davis at his most puffed-up. At present, his selfless contribution to the cause has gone unnoticed, but history will correct this. David Cameron should put Chhabra in the Lords.
Davis subjects staff to his own, unique regime. A Davis ex-employee says: “His office is like a survival-of-the-fittest jungle: the best men are left standing, perhaps damaged and broken, but standing.” In real life, people protest and break into buildings about conditions like that. Expect to see a wonky trestle table outside Sainsbury’s soon, showing harrowing snaps of Davis staff tormented like laboratory monkeys.
Central Office is not providing a team for Haltemprice and Howden, concentrating its efforts on the Henley by-election instead. Davis’s chief-of-staff, Dominic Raab, will join him for the duration of the race but will return to his old post after the result. Nick Wood, an experienced crack commando who worked for Davis at the end of his 2005 leadership campaign, is advising on media and strategy.
Kamikaze Davis has given Conservative MPs the chance to fine-tune a perfect soundbite. A ring-around produced some well-rehearsed corkers: “He’s given everyone something to talk about”, “Is he an idealist or an egomaniac? The answer is he is both”, “David Davis is famous for taking scalps; his final scalp was his own.”
On Tuesday morning, Dominic Grieve gave his first meeting as shadow home secretary. It was a business-like affair. Trusty Chhabra was there but apparently resembled Greyfriars Bobby. Grieve has taken over all of Davis’s office staff and a team member insists that they are “raring to go”. He is thoughtful and well-liked, and has a completely different style from Davis.
Over the week staff from Davis’s parliamentary office filled four huge bags with letters of support to be posted to Haltemprice and Howden ahead of his trip there this weekend. Already many small, and a few large, financial contributions to the cause have arrived, with cheques for as little as £5 enclosed in handwritten notes on Basildon Bond notepaper. The residents of this Hull suburb won’t know what’s hit them.
As for the fate of Davis after the by-election? One of his supporters is adamant: “He’ll definitely be appearing on a lot more sofas.”
[Further reading: Literary friendships never last]
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This article appears in the 15 Jul 2026 issue of the New Statesman, After Keir Starmer
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Subscribe here to commentWhy couldn’t this article have been flagged on “The Back Pages” page as “from the archives”? As I read through it, I was wondering about its connection with today’s life and politics (maybe Farage and Clacton), but no such link existed.
Afterwards, searching, I found a tiny mention right at the top of the page, ‘Archive’ – not even the usual “From our archives”.
I’m too slow to be able to cope with your ever-changing presentational styles.