Winnick has an all-party case over Green shambles

Dec 4 2008 By Jonathan Walker

David Winnick’s angry comments in the House of Commons illustrate that anger over the arrest of MP Damian Green is not limited to the Conservative benches.

Mr Green is the Tory immigration spokesman and his supposed crime involved obtaining and distributing information about the failings of the Home Office, which was embarrassing to the Government.

But Mr Winnick, the Labour MP for Dudley North, was fulsome in his condemnation of the police, when he spoke up in the Commons.

He called for senior police officers to come and appear before the “Bar” of the Commons. The bar is actually a white line on the carpet, but its significance is that people are summoned to the Bar when they are being prosecuted for the crime of contempt of Parliament.

Contempt involves obstructing either the Commons or Lords in their work - or any members of Parliament, or their staff. Parliament itself acts as a court, determining the accused’s guilt or innocence, then imposes a punishment.

It’s hard to imagine police officers being hauled to the Tower of London by angry MPs, but Mr Winnick’s comment was a reminder that Parliament does, in principle, have that power.

And it was a reminder of what this row is about. Nobody has claimed that MPs are above the law. If they are caught speeding or using a mobile phone while driving, or doing something worse, they clearly need to be punished like anyone else.

But there’s a feeling among many MPs that Mr Green was arrested and implicitly threatened with prosecution for doing his job. In his particular case, his job involved trying to make the Government look bad.

Although the police have made a terrible error in the way they behaved, the response of some MPs can appear out of proportion. But from their point of view, their ability to scrutinise the work of Government has been put under threat by the long arm of the law.

One winner in this affair could possibly be Sir Paul Scott Lee, Chief Constable of West Midlands Police. He has already announced he is to leave the force, but he’s only 55 and is seen as a contender for the post of Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, which is currently vacant.

Acting Commissioner Paul Stephenson has been one of the favourites but the events of the past week, during which he has run the Met, have tarnished his reputation slightly.

The Conservatives are also keen to turn the spotlight on Cabinet Office Minister Liam Byrne, Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill, claiming that he may have ordered the inquiry into how information was leaked to Mr Green.