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Police chief rang Tory leader for help in arrest of Damian Green
Martin Bentham10 Feb 2009
Police had to enlist the help of David Cameron to carry out the arrest of Tory MP Damian Green, it emerged today.
In evidence to MPs, Met Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, who is in charge of the inquiry into Mr Green, said detectives had originally intended to arrest the Tory MP earlier on the November day on which he was detained.
Mr Quick admitted that officers had been unable to find the Tory frontbencher and in an attempt to locate him decided to ring Mr Cameron to seek his help. The admission came as Mr Quick - who said he regretted the controversy caused by the arrest - gave details to the Commons home affairs select committee about the events leading up to it. Both Mr Green and Home Office civil servant Chris Galley are on bail as the investigation into allegations that they conspired to carry out misconduct in public office continues.
Mr Quick said that with further evidence still to be submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service and investigations still ongoing some of his answers would be limited, but insisted that his initial aim had been to carry out the MP's arrest with the "minimum" of fuss and publicity.
He told MPs that for this reason the usual police practice of detaining suspects at dawn, when they were most likely to be at home, was decided against and that the decision was taken instead to arrest Mr Green later on 27 November. By 1pm, however, officers had failed to find the MP.
Mr Quick was forced to ask Mr Cameron for help in tracing him after ringing the Conservative leader's office to inform him that a search of Mr Green's offices was about to take place.
"It was our intention that Mr Green would be arrested earlier in the day but he proved difficult to locate," Mr Quick told MPs. "Mr Cameron was asked to locate Mr Green," he told MPs.
Mr Quick said that nobody had been told of the plan to arrest Mr Green prior to his detention, but said that he had rung Mr Cameron and civil servants in the Cabinet Office and Home Office and the then Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair to warn them that searches were about to be carried out of Mr Green's offices.
Mr Quick added that although warrants had been obtained to search three of Mr Green's premises, including his home, no warrant had been obtained for the search of his parliamentary office because legislation stipulated that police should instead seek to obtain consent, which in this case they had to be obtained from Parliament's Serjeant at Arms.
The assistant commissioner also admitted that he regretted his outburst against the Conservative Party, in which he accused it of "corrupt" briefing against him, after details of his home address were published in newspapers.
Asked by Conservative MPs whether his comments about the party called into question his impartiality, Mr Quick insisted that he remained unbiased and fit to oversee the investigation into Mr Green.
He said he had been "very objective" in all his decision making in the case.
The Crown Prosecution Office has promised to reach a decision on the fates of Mr Green and Mr Galley as soon as possible, but is still awaiting further material from the police.
Reader views (1)
What happened to seperation of powers and independence of the legislative?!?? Nu Labor state apparatus is so overpowering... shame they cannot do anything about economics, crime, schools, social problems, transport and other infrastructure mess.
- Phil, Islington, London, 10/02/2009 21:29
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