Sydney: John Bercow, the Commons speaker, has suffered a blow after the former Tory minister Damian Green raised questions about plans to give a senior Westminster post to an Australian parliamentary official who is facing questions over the monitoring of a senator’s office by CCTV cameras.

In a sign of growing unease in all parties at the planned appointment of Carol Mills, Green said he was “extremely disturbed” by the parallels between the alleged breach of parliamentary privilege in Canberra and a police raid on his office at Westminster in 2008.

He called for a delay in the appointment of Mills as clerk and chief executive of the Commons until an Australian senate committee has conducted an inquiry into the use of CCTV cameras by officials in her department to monitor the office of the veteran Labor senator John Faulkner as part of an investigation into a parliamentary official.

Green, whose parliamentary office was raided by police in 2008 after a senior official at Westminster failed to alert the clerk of the Commons, said he would be contacting the Speaker to raise concerns about the parallels between the two cases.

He told the Guardian: “I am extremely disturbed to see that one of the issues being investigated at the moment appears to be so similar to what was such a shocking episode for parliament when my office was raided with the cooperation of the house authorities.

“I will be contacting the Speaker because I have particular concerns about surveillance of MPs and the intrusion on their offices. So I am extremely disturbed to learn about what allegedly happened with this lady’s department in the Australian parliament.

“I will be urging that any appointment should be put on hold at the very least until the privileges committee investigation has been completed in Australia.”

Green’s intervention will strengthen the hand of frontbenchers on both sides of the Commons who are arguing for a delay in the appointment of Mills.

The frontbenchers want No 10 to delay sending her name to the palace for approval by the Queen until the completion of the privileges inquiry in Canberra and a separate inquiry into her department’s work.

The frontbenchers have seized on an email to the retiring clerk of the commons, Sir Robert Rogers, from Rosemary Laing, his counterpart in the Australian senate.

Laing has spoken out against appointing Mills as the guardian of ancient parliamentary privileges at Westminster on the grounds that she suggested to a committee of inquiry that she had placed the management of her department over the privileges of a parliamentarian.

Critics say that while Mills has strong management experience she has less experience of parliamentary procedure and guarding the privileges of MPs.

Green said that the CCTV monitoring in Canberra revived memories of the raid on his office by police who were investigating Home Office leaks to the then shadow home office minister.

Michael Martin, the then Speaker, told MPs that the then serjeant at arms, Jill Pay, had signed a consent form to admit the police, who did not have a warrant, without consulting the clerk of the house.

Green told the Guardian: “There was a huge shock throughout parliament when my office was broken into by the police. So at the very least we know the facts of what happened with this senator in Australia before we appoint the most senior official of the house for the next few years.”

The former minister said he was shocked that officials at the time of the raid in 2008 appeared not to appreciate the significance of parliamentary privileges which are designed to ensure that MPs can protect confidential information from constituents.

He said: “That is what many people, as well as me, thought was most shocking: that the parliamentary authorities at the time made no defence of the privileges of parliament and its members.

“That was the very serious issue that was brought up then. So this investigation into the use of CCTV is absolutely relevant in the wake of that.

“Parliamentary privilege suggests some kind of privilege for MPs. It is actually privilege for their constituents that they have got somebody who they know will keep things absolutely confidential if they approach them with problems or complaints. Whether it is complaints about the police or about maybe the parliamentary authorities people should expect that an MP’s office is where things can be kept absolutely confidential.

“That was the big point of issue when my office was raided. That seems to be a point at issue if CCTV cameras are pointed at that particular Australian senator’s offices.”