Tonight:
4°c
A report into the arrest of the Conservative MP Damian Green by Scotland Yard detectives has been heavily censored with some sensitive passages completely blacked out, it emerged today.
Police are preparing to publish the report later this month but lawyers acting for several individuals named in the study are understood to have demanded key sections are kept secret.
The report is critical of the arrest of the Tory immigration spokesman and the search of his Westminster offices, actions which caused a storm of protest from politicians last year.
The move to publish the document has met with objections from senior civil servants as well as police officers.
One source told the Times newspaper that the report was so heavily redacted it “makes MPs' expenses look a model of transparency”.
Those who have demanded that passages are blanked out include Sir David Normington, the Home Office Permanent Secretary, who has raised concerns that leaks of sensitive material could damage national security.
Former Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, the senior officer who led the inquiry, is understood to have objected to the publication of any part of the report.
Mr Quick, who was forced to resign from the Met earlier this year after accidentally exposing details of an anti-terror operation when he was photographed arrived at Downing Street, is understood to believe the report misrepresents his investigation, a view also backed by other detectives on his team.
The study by former chief constable Ian Johnston was commissioned by Yard chief Sir Paul Stephenson to head off the barrage of criticism over the raid on Westminster.
Mr Green was under investigation for allegedly receiving leaked documents from Chris Galley, a Home Office civil servant. The Crown Prosecution Service later decided neither should face charges over the issue.
All those who are named in the report, including Mr Green, have been shown the study. It is not known if he asked for any passages to be redacted.
But some officers such as Mr Quick are believed to argue that the Johnston review was hastily written while the inquiry was in its early stages and is riddled with inaccuracies while also omitting significant material.
They claim that it cannot give a complete picture because much of the evidence had not been gathered when it was written.
Insiders say one example is that the report does not take account of items seized in the controversial search of Mr Green's Westminster office. Detectives were unable to examine those until March after they had won a legal battle over whether or not the material was protected by parliamentary privilege.
Reader views (8)
This whole episode shows how shamelessly politicised certain elements of the Police and Civil Service have become under this nefarious, anti-libertarian Britain-hating government.
Damien Green's arrest was politically motivated, of that there is no doubt.
Senior members of the NuLiebour Politburo were involved at every level, there is no way it could have happened without their sanction.
Senior Civil Servants acted in the Political interests of NuLiebour, which is beyond their remit and anti-democratic.
This report, assuming that it is in fact truthful, must be published in full, regardless of the personal consequences for those involved.
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster, 01/10/2009 11:26
Report abuse
@ Frank, Home Counties, England: "So the Communist Labour brothers are still at it. Socialist scum".
WHAT ELSE DO YOU EXPECT FROM A GAGGLE OF MEALY-MOUTHED, TWO-FACED, PARASITE HYPOCRITES CALLED NuLIEBOUR?
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR, 01/10/2009 11:06
Report abuse
Are the 'senior civil servants' who strongly objected to, and deliberately obstructed, the publication of any part of this report, the very same politicised, ZaNuLabour friendly, Trade Union heirarchy who the Labour 'Project' have conveniently found unnessesary, excessively overpaid taxpayer funded 'jobs' for, within a now deliberately corrupted and Party State servile Whitehall?
- Dave, Cumbria, 01/10/2009 10:57
Report abuse
''raised concerns that leaks of sensitive material could damage national security.''
Oh so what you pocket is now called national security is it ?
- Edouard, Toulouse. France, 01/10/2009 10:54
Report abuse
I am of the same opinion as Frank,I hope that David will consider the complete dismantling of the Welfare State,including the NHS,all State handouts to the underclasses must cease.
- Ivor T Mantanley, Suningdale, 01/10/2009 10:40
Report abuse
Why am i not surprised when Nu Liebour are B + Q s best customer for whitewash, after all we who pay MP s wages are not allowed to know anything because it affects "National Security" The reality is Jack Boots Jaqui used Gorballs Mick to set it all up, unfortunately for Liebour who are not greatly endowed with brains it all backfired, and they honestly think they have a chance of re election , falling snow has just been reported in Bemuda !!
- Alan Davey, London UK, 01/10/2009 09:59
Report abuse
So the Communist Labour brothers are still at it.
Socialist scum.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 01/10/2009 09:52
Report abuse
What would be really nice would be if there was some group of fit well educated people, funded from taxation, who could go around and lock up hoodlums, burglars and assorted scumbags and then these guys who would rather play politics, harass motorists, and whine like little babies, could get on with what they want to do. Then everybody would be happy.
- Threaded, Roskilde, Denmark, 01/10/2009 09:09
Report abuse
