Davis' successor is no pushover

With his public school and Oxbridge education and the well-spoken charm of a queen's counsel, Dominic Grieve appears the opposite of the working-class boy made good he succeeds as shadow Home Secretary.

But while David Davis has fought bruising street battles with the Government over anti-terror laws, ID cards and planned limits on jury trials, Mr Grieve has won a reputation as a formidable campaigner with forensic dissections of a string of government Bills.

Mr Grieve made his name in the 32-hour clash between the Commons and Lords over plans to impose control orders on terror suspects three years ago.

The 52-year-old barrister, and one-nation Tory who was promoted from the role of shadow Attorney General, is known as a strong defender of civil liberties and a long-standing critic of plans to extend detention without charge.

Yesterday Mr Grieve, an Anglican who is a member of the Church of England's London synod, reiterated the Tories' commitment to repealing 42-day detention if they come to power.

He was embroiled in controversy at the height of the Conservatives' internal revolt over grammar schools last year when he floated the idea of new selective schools being built in his Beaconsfield constituency. David Cameron ordered a clarification to declare that new grammars could be built to cope with demand in neighbourhoods with selective schooling.

While a pupil at Westminster School in London, he often visited Parliament to watch his father, the Conservative MP for Solihull, Sir Percy Grieve in action.

He went on to study modern history at Magdalen, Oxford, after which he trained as a barrister. In 1997 he clinched the Tory nomination for Beaconsfield, one of the party's safest seats. He has since had a steady rise through the ranks.