Tony Clarke

Tony Clarke (Northampton Independent Voice): Damian Green's role in allegedly "grooming" Graham Galley, an assistant private secretary in the Home Office, and a former Tory election candidate, is still to be fully determined. One can only wonder at what "inducements" would have been put up to persuade the civil servant to leak highly confidential information to the shadow immigration minister in the first place. The Daily Mail and other right wing rags must have thought Christmas had come early as story after story was revealed to give them even more front pages to attack Johnny Foreigner with.

But Green's stupidity, and the distasteful thought of how cheaply politically sensitive information can be acquired are deemed (rightly so) secondary issues to the real crime committed here. That, in my view, was carried out by the Metropolitan Police the minute they entered the parliamentary office of the MP for Ashford and seized his computer. Whatever happened to parliamentary privilege? What on earth was the Sergeant at Arms thinking about allowing such access without the MP's agreement? and what role did the Speaker play in giving permission for such an affront to our democracy?