LONDON (AFP) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday scraped victory in a parliamentary vote over his widely-opposed anti-terrorism plans, but only with the help of lawmakers from a minor party. All nine members of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Northern Ireland's biggest Protestant party, backed the proposal to increase the pre-charge detention period for suspected extremists from 28 days to 42. That ensured the 315 to 306 vote win, although rumours of a deal with the unionists were hotly denied. Thirty-six members of Brown's Labour Party rebelled, holding firm in the face of last-minute concessions from the government and personal interventions from senior figures and the prime minister himself to get them to change track. The result, even by such a close margin, temporarily takes the heat off Brown, who has been under pressure due to record lows in the opinion polls and crushing defeats in recent local polls and a by-election. Veteran Labour member of parliament Austin Mitchell summed up the implications of a loss for Brown, who had staked his authority on the need for an extension in the interests of national security. The government still has to clear the hurdle of the upper House of Lords, where there is strong opposition, to get the proposals on to the statute books. Grogan said that "the lords are going to savage this legislation".