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Protest threats in row over Conservative MP's arrest

Some MPs on Wednesday were threatening to stage a protest if the Speaker of the House of Commons refused to allow an emergency debate on the arrest of Conservative immigration spokesman Damian Green.

  • Reuters
  • Published: 23:16 December 3, 2008
  • Gulf News

London: Some MPs on Wednesday were threatening to stage a protest if the Speaker of the House of Commons refused to allow an emergency debate on the arrest of Conservative immigration spokesman Damian Green.

Many politicians were furious that Michael Martin apparently failed to uphold parliament privileges by letting the police search Green's Commons office last Thursday. Some called for Martin to be sacked and vowed to interrupt his statement on the matter.

The row threatened to overshadow the Queen's reopening of parliament.

Green, 52, was quizzed for nine hours by counter-terrorism officers after being arrested as part of an inquiry into Home Office leaks.

Senior Conservative politician Chris Grayling said Martin needed to explain why the police commons raid was allowed and who authorised it.

He said the issue the speaker needed to address was what the status of parliamentary offices and the parliamentary estate is.

"In the same way that police can't go into a judge's chambers and take sensitive legal documents in the middle of a case, I'm not convinced that police should be able to go into a parliamentary office and take away sensitive constituency papers."

But Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said the protests were a "self-serving smokescreen" for the Conservatives to hide their apparent collusion with a Home Office official who had been arrested on suspicion of leaking internal documents.

"The Civil Service operates on the basis of a code which seeks to uphold their impartiality and their professionalism," Mandelson told Sky.

The Conservatives late on Tuesday released video footage of police officers searching Green's office.

The short film showed a detective asking Conservative MP Andrew Mackay and a colleague filming the scene to leave the office as their presence was "not appropriate."

Green was arrested last Thursday on suspicion of "conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office and aiding and abetting, counselling or procuring misconduct in a public office."

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