Tory MP points out laws broken, gets arrested

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Conservative immigration spokesman Damian Green has been arrested and released on bail in connection with a series of leaks from the Home Office.

Police say Mr Green was held on suspicion of "conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office".

The MP denied any wrongdoing and said "opposition politicians have a duty to hold the government to account" and that he would "continue to do so".

He was questioned, but has not been charged and was bailed until February.

Mr Green's arrest is believed to be connected to the arrest of a man suspected of being a Home Office whistleblower.

Speaking outside the House of Commons, Mr Green said: "I was astonished to have spent more than nine hours today under arrest for doing my job.

'Right to know'

"I emphatically deny I have done anything wrong. I have many times made public information that the government wanted to keep secret - information that the public has a right to know.

"In a democracy, opposition politicians have a duty to hold the government to account.

"I was elected to the House of Commons precisely to do that and I certainly intend to continue doing so."

The BBC understands that a junior Home Office official was suspended from duty 10 days ago over a number of leaks and the matter was referred to police. He was arrested but not charged.

It follows a series of leaks, including:

* The November 2007 revelation that the home secretary knew the Security Industry Authority had granted licences to 5,000 illegal workers, but decided not to publicise it.
* The February 2008 news that an illegal immigrant had been employed as a cleaner in the House of Commons.
* A whips' list of potential Labour rebels in the vote on plans to increase the pre-charge terror detention limit to 42 days.
* A letter from the home secretary warning that a recession could lead to a rise in crime.

The BBC understands Tory leader David Cameron is angry about what has happened and stands by Mr Green.

'Big questions'

Speaking on BBC One's Question Time, shadow chancellor George Osborne said: "I think it's absolutely extraordinary that the police have taken that decision.

"It has long been the case in our democracy that MPs have received information from civil servants - I think to hide information from the public is wrong.

"It is early days, it's an extraordinary case. I think there are going to be some very, very big questions asked of the police."

A spokesman for the Conservative Party said Mr Green had "on a number of occasions, legitimately revealed information which the Home Office chose not to make public.

"Disclosure of this information was manifestly in the public interest.

"Mr Green denies any wrongdoing and stands by his actions."

Conservative sources said a police investigation into a high-ranking politician would have to have been cleared at "the very top" and have described the actions as "Stalinesque".

'No prior knowledge'

But a Downing Street spokesman said: "This is a matter for the police. The prime minister had no prior knowledge of the arrest of Mr Green and was only informed after the event."

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has said he was informed in advance of the Met's plan to arrest Mr Green, and expressed "trenchant" concerns about the move.

Mr Green, the MP for Ashford in Kent, who has been the Conservatives' immigration spokesman since December 2005, was arrested shortly before 1400 GMT at his constituency home.

The Tories say they understand counter-terrorism officers were involved in searches of his home and offices.

In a statement, the Met said the arrest was made without any ministerial influence.

They said: "The investigation into the alleged leak of confidential government material followed the receipt by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) of a complaint from the Cabinet Office.

"The decision to make today's arrest was taken solely by the MPS without any ministerial knowledge or approval."

It said search warrants had been carried out at a home in Kent, a home in west London, business premises in Kent and in central London

"The search at the residential address in west London has concluded, the other searches continue," it added.

A Home Office spokesman confirmed that a Home Office official had been arrested last week "in connection with an inquiry into alleged leaked documents".
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Source
 
The BBC has also obtained this still footage from the scene of the arrest:
Grail_being_repressed_small.jpg


The MP could only comment on the violence inherent in the system at the time of his arrest.
 
:ph34r:

some Downing Street minion said:
"This is a matter for the police. The prime minister had no prior knowledge of the arrest of Mr Green and was only informed after the event."
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some Met minion said:
"The decision to make today's arrest was taken solely by the MPS without any ministerial knowledge or approval."
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Yeahhh, we believe you, especially when they did tell the Speaker of the Commons, David Cameron and Boris Johnson before the event.
Interestingly, this happened on Sir Ian Blair's (Commissioner of the Met Police, notoriously political, was prevailed upon to resign by Boris) last day in the job. Also, Parliament has just risen for a short break.
Tin-foil hattery aside, this is fucking stupid and also very worrying.
 
Will someone explain what a Shadow Minister does? It sound awfully sinister to me...:ninja:
 
phuckingduck said:
Will someone explain what a Shadow Minister does? It sound awfully sinister to me...:ninja:
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It means that they're in opposition to the current government.

Eg here the Labor party is in power, so the minister is labor and the liberal party is in opposition so the shadow minister is a liberal.
 
Hidden_Hunter said:
It means that they're in opposition to the current government.

Eg here the Labor party is in power, so the minister is labor and the liberal party is in opposition so the shadow minister is a liberal.
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Here in the US we only have that in Congress, ie for each House or Senate majority leader/whip/etc, there is a minority (opposition) leader/whip/etc. We don't have a formal "shadow cabinet" as such, so it sounds unusual to us.
 
Hidden_Hunter said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_System

You can learn all about it there if you really care :D
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Oh man, I went through that page ages ago. That was back when I first started to listen to UK news satire, while realizing that Prime Minister's Questions was way more entertaining than anything on CSPAN. Watching the smackdowns that Tony Blair and David Cameron swapped across the floor was :blink::blink::blink:. It's just not as familiar as the (for me) usual American system, y'know?
 
Welcome to the fascist government of Britain. There needs to be public outrage and protesting to this. It won't get better if it is ignored.
 
* The November 2007 revelation that the home secretary knew the Security Industry Authority had granted licences to 5,000 illegal workers, but decided not to publicise it.
* The February 2008 news that an illegal immigrant had been employed as a cleaner in the House of Commons.
* A whips' list of potential Labour rebels in the vote on plans to increase the pre-charge terror detention limit to 42 days.
* A letter from the home secretary warning that a recession could lead to a rise in crime.
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These are the reasons that this opposition leader was arrested? That's shit people should know! Especially the detention and crime bits. Wow, what a bunch of bullshit. The UK needs a bill of rights already.

argatoga said:
Welcome to the fascist government of Britain. There needs to be public outrage and protesting to this. It won't get better if it is ignored.
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Exactly. Those people need to get pissed off! Every one of the handful of British people I've talked to didn't like their gov't, common law, health and safety, etc, but not a one of them had ever even been to a protest of any kind.
 
Nothing to see here, it's just the (now ex) Metropolitan Police Commissioner is pissed off because he was forced out by the Tory mayor, Boris Johnson.
 
Labcoatguy said:
Oh man, I went through that page ages ago. That was back when I first started to listen to UK news satire, while realizing that Prime Minister's Questions was way more entertaining than anything on CSPAN. Watching the smackdowns that Tony Blair and David Cameron swapped across the floor was :blink::blink::blink:. It's just not as familiar as the (for me) usual American system, y'know?
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Sadly PMQs sucks at the moment, as Gordon Brown doesn't put on a good show or even attempt to answer the question.

argatoga said:
Welcome to the fascist government of Britain. There needs to be public outrage and protesting to this. It won't get better if it is ignored.
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Trust me, there is outrage. Take a look at any newspaper from the last few days - every single one of them is strongly against what's happened.

There've also been a number of (in jest?) comparisons to Mugabe's Zimbabwe - how both governments now lock up opponents, both leaders are unelected, and so on.


this sums the whole thing up nicely
 
Aren't members of parliament granted diplomatic immunity in the UK? For exactly that reason we have that here, and it can only be suspended in a complicated process to ensure noone randomly arrests them.
 
Gordon Brown admits to doing essentially the same thing years ago.

[YOUTUBE]QIrweIqqsOc[/YOUTUBE]
 
This kind of thing just reeks of BS, the Labor party quite frankly are about as useful as a Bomb Disposal Expert with the hiccups. There's no way that they didn't know what was going to happen and for them to denounce it only for footage to appear of Brown doing exactly the same thing years ago only proves just how full of it they are. All of them are quite frankly a bunch of losers. Also its a sad state of affairs when someone like Jeremy Clarkson becomes a better fave for PM than Brown.
Regarding the PMQ's just once i'd like to see someone lose their temper in there "would the right honorable gentleman kindly shut up or i'll take him outside and beat his frakking brains out." or "Brown doesn't know anything about Tax Cuts, even your momma knows more than you do after i was with her last night!"
on a side note, i've never reffered to Gordon Brown as my Prime Minister for one very simple reason. i never voted him into office, he just took the keys when Tony Blair resigned, started screwing up the country. Then last year there was all that talk about a snap election only for when David Cameron whipped his ass he ran off crying like a little girl.
 
nate_bartlet said:
Regarding the PMQ's just once i'd like to see someone lose their temper in there "would the right honorable gentleman kindly shut up or i'll take him outside and beat his frakking brains out." or "Brown doesn't know anything about Tax Cuts, even your momma knows more than you do after i was with her last night!"
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Cameron lost his temper a couple weeks back over the Baby P. He was probably justified in getting pissed off, but it wasn't exactly our parliament's finest hour.

I read somewhere that Australian parliament debates have been lively in the past, full of fun insults. I think it was in Bill Bryson's Down Under.
 
UK has been in turmoil for a while now, labour might have made a few good changes at first but now, like the bush administration in the US, they have ended up screwing up alot more than they fixed and have to go. hope next election we will have a tory to counter the labour's nanny government. then, maybe a liberal-democrat who knows? don't want it being messed with by the tories either. balance is the key.
 
As well as the police not having a warrant for Greens arrest, it now transpires that the police secretly taped the proceedings.

So we've got the police... misleading... about being able to go into Parliament, using anti-terrorism officers to search for files relating to laws that haven't been broken, while covertly - and possibly illegally - taping it all. The MP concerned now has his DNA on a national database which has been told by several courts of law to wipe innocent peoples details off, yet the powers that be are...unable...to do so.
 
God bless America. Wait, what?

Seriously, welcome to our world right after the 9/11 attacks. At least you don't have someone saying this is all legal under "executive privilege" or the "UK PATRIOT act". I would hope, at least, someone in your country goes "err... no?".
 
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