The arrest on Thursday of MP Damian Green for disclosing to the public a series of New Labour fiascos was not just a blow to freedom of speech, it was the culmination of this arrogant Government’s 11-year assault on British liberal democracy.
It was 1.30pm on Thursday that he was arrested by three counter-terrorism officers in a car park in Kent.
At the same time, his constituency office and, incredibly, his office in the House of Commons were being ransacked, nine counter-terrorism officers searched his London home.
He was kept for nine hours, even though he was questioned for only one. All his computers, his mobile phone and his home telephone system were confiscated, his email account was shut down and many files were removed, crippling his ability to serve his constituents – not to mention invading their privacy as well.
This week of all weeks, with Mumbai the victim of a horrific terrorist attack, we are left all too aware of the risk of terrorism.
Since 1997, this Labour Government has tried to hoodwink the British people into giving up our precious – hard-fought – freedoms, on the flimsy pretext that it can make us safer.
The truth is that we can’t defend our freedoms by sacrificing them – and Damian Green has shown us why.
What was the purpose of this heavy-handed police action against Damian? A huge breach of national security? No.
Had he posed a threat to our national security that justified diverting our counter-terrorism police from their other jobs?
No, just the reverse. That is why there is no suggestion of a charge under the Official Secrets Act – because it does not apply.
It is the duty of Her Majesty’s Opposition to scrutinise the Government, highlight its mistakes and hold it to account.
If the widespread reports are true, Damian is being pursued by the police, following a referral from the Home Office, for passing on leaked documents to the newspapers in four cases. Two of those cases involved attempts by the Government to hide serious security failings.
In one case in 2007, the Home Secretary tried to conceal the fact that 5,000 illegal immigrants had been licensed by the Security Industry Authority to work in sensitive security posts – including with the Metropolitan Police and guarding the Prime Minister’s car.
If Damian Green enabled newspapers to shine a light on this systemic failure, it is an example of free speech guarding our nation’s security. For that, he should be applauded, not punished.
The second case reported was the then Immigration Minister Liam Byrne’s attempt earlier this year to conceal the fact that an illegal immigrant had been working at Parliament.
This was a disturbing security failure at the heart of our democracy. Again, if Damian helped expose this security breach – so it could be addressed – free speech was defending our democracy.
None of this is new. Down the ages, liberty – and freedom of speech in particular – has been the best defence against sloppy security. Sometimes that will involve breaching the employer’s duty of confidentiality – as recognised by our law.
When, in the Thirties, Churchill warned against the growing military might of the Luftwaffe, he didn’t rely on stirring speeches alone. He put into the public domain information leaked to him from Government officials that demonstrated the weakness in our air defences.
Given the tragic legacy of appeasement, does anyone today suggest that British national security would have been served by gagging Churchill? Would anyone have dared to prosecute him? Of course not. Churchill’s brave stance saved us from disaster.
Damian Green was elected to Parliament to uphold the truth, serve the country and hold the Government to account. His responsibility is to defend the public interest, not save Ministerial blushes. If presented with leaked information that exposes Government failures, lies or cover-ups, his duty is to shop the Government – not the whistleblower.
None of the disclosures put the country at risk, compromised intelligence or jeopardised security. They just humiliated incompetent Ministers.
Of course, employees owe a duty of confidentiality to their employer. But, except from in exceptional circumstances, that is a disciplinary matter, not a criminal one – let alone a criminal offence under an obscure law that dates back to a court case in the 18th Century.
That is why the response by the Home Office and the Metropolitan Police has been appalling – and shows how instinctively authoritarian this Government has become.
Jacqui Smith’s department launched a witch-hunt, ordering counter-terrorist police to mount an investigation that had them arresting a young Home Office official at his home at 5.50am. This appears to have led them to Damian Green – who got similar treatment two weeks later.
Damian was arrested in what is the most unprecedented attack by government and the police on our democracy in recent history – while the Speaker of the House of Commons stood idly by. But they picked the wrong person to try to intimidate.
Damian is one of the steadiest men I have ever had the privilege to serve with. Yet I thought then that he must have faced one of the most difficult days of his life.
Only hardened criminals find being arrested anything other than wearing.
Nevertheless, after nine hours of interrogation, Damian emerged unbowed, shortly after midnight, vowing to continue to discharge his ‘duty to hold the Government to account’.
The inquest into how such a repressive response could happen in this country has just begun.
Did Jacqui Smith give the green light for the police swoop on her fellow Member of Parliament? Were counter-terrorism officers operating against an MP without her knowing about it?
What role did Gordon Brown play in this Kafka-esque parody of justice? The claim that no Ministers had any prior knowledge of the arrest stretches credibility to breaking point.
It will face intense scrutiny, and if any Minister is found to have been less than entirely straightforward it will certainly be fatal for their career.
It is almost six months since I resigned in protest at Gordon Brown’s contemptible corruption of the democratic process – amid widespread reports of the Government bribing and bullying its way to securing the vote on 42 days’ detention without charge.
For me that was the last straw after 11 years of relentless assault on our fundamental freedoms. We have seen the growth in the database state, outpaced only by the number of cases of the Government losing sensitive personal information.
We have seen crackdowns on freedom of speech and peaceful protest on the most trivial of grounds – including fining the sellers of ‘B******s to Blair’ T-shirts, detaining an 82-year-old heckler at the Labour conference and prosecuting peace activists for reading out the names of the brave British soldiers killed in Iraq.
I thought I’d seen it all. But even I had not expected to see a friend and colleague arrested for the heinous crime of being a good parliamentarian. But last week’s attack on our democracy will cast in stone Gordon Brown’s long-overdue epitaph as the most authoritarian Prime Minister in post-war history.
Damian is among the most straightforward and honourable of people. I trust him totally.
He worked for me when I was Shadow Home Secretary. Everything he did as Shadow Immigration Minister he did with my implicit or explicit support. He is guilty of nothing that anyone would recognise as a crime.
And our best defence? Ironically, justice can probably only now be properly served if Damian is formally charged under this obscure criminal law that dates back to the 1700s.
He could then elect for that ancient British bulwark against despotism, the right to trial by jury, place his trust in 12 members of the British public and subpoena the whole damn lot of them – from Blair through to Brown.
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