A parliamentarian is arrested and held for nine hours in a police station in the capital city while 50 miles away his house in the countryside is searched by nine anti-terrorist police officers, writes John Hipwood.
Another sad case from Zimbabwe you might think as the heavy-handed police state cracks down yet again on anyone who steps out of line.
Wrong. And nor is is George Orwell’s 1984. This is England, November 2008.
The parliamentarian concerned is Damian Green, the Conservatives’ immigration spokesman, and the Metropolitan Police think he’s so dangerous that he needed to be arrested, held in a West London police station until nearly midnight while his home and Westminster office were searched. Mr Green hasn’t been charged with anything, but his “crime” is receiving information from one or more whistleblowers in the Home Office and releasing the information to the media.
Among the tales he had to tell was the one about 5,000 illegal immigrants working in the security industry and a letter from Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to Gordon Brown warning that the recession could cause a backlash against migrants.
The Government believes the public had no right to know these things. As an Opposition spokesman, Mr Green thought that they did.
The man he shadows in the Government, immigration minister Phil Woolas told BBC Radio this morning that Mr Green had been charged with CONSPIRACY to commit misconduct in a public office, and was keen to emphasise the word “conspiracy”.
Mr Woolas was wrong, of course, and had to be corrected because Mr Green hasn’t been charged with anything. The minister also stressed that “as far as I am aware” no minister knew in advance that his Tory shadow was to be arrested. Apparently, London Mayor Boris Johnson and David Cameron were told in advance, but Downing Street denied that the Prime Minister had been told.
Let’s hope not, considering Mr Brown thrived on Whitehall leaks when he was in Opposition and that potentially market sensitive information about Monday’s mini-budget, including the temporary cut in VAT, was leaked by the Government.
What a pity that Parliament is currently in recess because there are some pretty big questions we would all like to hear answers to today from the Met and their political masters at the Home Office.
One person who won’t be giving any answers is the outgoing Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair. Yesterday was Sir Ian’s last day in his job. Funny coincidence that.
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