Unfair to Green

When Damian Green was arrested during an investigation into a leak from the Home Office when Labour was in power in 2008, there was uproar. Mr Green was the Conservative shadow home office minister and holding the Government to account was part of his job. His Westminster offices were searched by officers in what was seen as an affront to the rights of MPS. The ensuing furore caused bad blood between the police and the Conservative Party at the time.

The leader of the inquiry was Bob Quick, then head of Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command, who surfaced yesterday to allege that they found pornographic material on Mr Green’s computer. The First Minister of State strongly denies this, but why should he even have to? The police were investigating the source of an alleged leak from the Home Office, not engaged on a fishing expedition to see if anything else compromising might come their way.

Mr Quick later had to leave his post over another unrelated incident, one which might not have proven terminal had it not been for the row over the investigation of Mr Green. Now, with Mr Green facing an inquiry over an accusation of harassment that he denies, Mr Quick’s intervention has inevitably placed the minister’s future in fresh doubt. Is this a proper use of information gathered in the course of a police investigation nine years ago? If it was a serious matter, why did they not take action then? If not, it is hardly Mr Quick’s prerogative to put it in the public domain now.

Whatever findings of impropriety or worse are eventually reached over sexual mores at Westminster, those who stand accused are entitled to fairness and due process.