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As the fallout from the arrest of Tory immigration spokesman Damian Green continues, it is the Metropolitan Police that looks most damaged.
Sir Paul Stephenson, who authorised the ill-judged operation, was until now a front-runner to succeed Sir Ian Blair as Metropolitan Police Commissioner, and indeed has a strong track record. He is now said to be reconsidering his application. Certainly this debacle suggests a lack of the political nous necessary to head the Met.
The Met's discomfort will not, however, save ministers from embarrassment. At every level, the arrest was a disastrous error. It raises serious questions about the privileges of Parliament, if police investigating an alleged minor breach of the law can raid an MP's Commons office. It undermines the relationship of confidentiality between an MP and his constituents if police can take away computers containing private correspondence. It intimidates any other civil servants who may feel inclined in the public interest to leak instances of flagrant government incompetence.
As for the Home Secretary, it seems astonishing that she should not have known in advance that the arrest was planned. But a more likely casualty of the affair could be the Speaker of the House, Michael Martin. He has announced that he will be making a statement on Wednesday which will presumably say whether he himself authorised the police search of Mr Green's Commons offices. Is it really possible that the Speaker either did not know about a police raid on the Commons office of an opposition frontbencher or raised no objection to it? Even if he had been told incorrectly — as the Serjeant at Arms appears to have been — that the arrest was approved by the Director of Public Prosecutions, he should have raised concerns about the apparent abuse of MPs' privileges. His job is to protect parliamentary freedoms.
If Mr Martin did indeed authorise the raid, then his position is untenable. That would cause the Government discomfort. But for the Met, the crisis of judgment and confidence exposed by this sorry affair is potentially much more serious.
Tax gamble
The temporary reduction of VAT, the measure at the heart of last week's pre-Budget report, comes into force today amid mounting disquiet over the stimulus package. The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that the tax cuts will leave an average family paying £1,283 more in tax from 2011 than they were when Labour came to power in 1997. The cuts will cause a ballooning of the national debt that is unprecedented in peacetime. Yet as the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, admitted in an interview yesterday, he will “almost certainly” have to do more.
Meanwhile, the immediate cause of the downturn, the banks' squeeze on lending, remains largely unchanged. There is some respite today in RBS's announcement that it will allow defaulting mortgage-holders six months' grace before taking steps to repossess their properties. RBS had little choice but to soften its line: the Government now owns 58 per cent of the stricken bank. But so far, ministers' efforts to persuade other banks to ease up on repossessions and to start lending again have made little progress.
The Government has seen no poll bounce as a result of the tax cuts — and the recession has a long time to run. Ministers will hope that voters feel the difference from lower VAT. But the danger is that future tax rises are more likely to make an impression.
And celebrating...
Tap Water. This paper's campaign to persuade restaurants and bars to serve London tap water rather than expensive bottled water to the public has been a remarkable success. Tonight, the winner of the competition to design the definitive carafe to serve London tap in restaurants, Neil Barron, gets his prize from the Mayor. With this new and elegant way of serving London water, the tap option seems not just the greener choice, but the most stylish solution too.
Reader views (3)
Sir Paul Stephenson will have to live with this misjudgement for the rest of his career.Its political implications will jeopardize the trust he would need from his officers and the public they serve.
Look at his predecessor for the outcome.
- Jon Dee, N Warks UK
Cant really undestand why this man has been arrested or the matter has been investigated........in my mined and the majority of other electors who talk to me there have been other suspected crimes by other politcians - worse than this - that have apparently been ignored.
Eg. What about the MP who visited a terrorist - what for what was said? He's disappeared so apparently the Party suspect or didnt like his actvities.
What about the politicians (all parties) who have "misused" to say the least huge amounts of OUR money!
What about Hains he's just disappeared.
Etc., etc.,
- Ed, london
Who made the initial complaint to the police and therefore gave them authority to proceed with any investigation?
- Terry Kennewell, bracknell berkshire
