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width="1" height="1" //divpThe man tipped to become the new Metropolitan police commissioner was
last night understood to be considering whether he should apply for the job, after a barrage of
criticism from politicians on all sides over the arrest of the Conservative shadow Home Office
minister Damian Green. /ppSir Paul Stephenson, as acting head of the Met, ultimately sanctioned the
arrest of Green over his role in publishing documents allegedly leaked to him by a mole in the Home
Office. /ppHis decision, described by one senior officer as "totally catastrophic", has led to a
furious reaction from the Conservative party leader, David Cameron, the London mayor Boris Johnson
and members of the cabinet, who are understood to be divided over the issue. /ppThe deadline for
applications for the top job at the Met is noon today and Stephenson is understood to be wondering
whether the post is worth the flak./pp"He is a man who does angst over things quite a lot and he
will be thinking very hard about this," said one source./ppSenior members of the cabinet have
expressed deep disquiet over the treatment of Green, who was detained by police for nine hours last
Thursday and forced to give a fingerprint and DNA sample. Some ministers voiced unease on the
margins of a cabinet meeting in Leeds on Friday. They believe the police behaviour was heavy-handed
and gave the impression that the state was attempting to block the opposition from holding the
government to account. Other ministers said the police had good grounds to question
Green./ppHarriet Harman, the leader of the Commons, admitted yesterday that she was "very concerned
indeed", about what had happened, though the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, refused to apologise and
insisted the police were independent. /ppThe Tories intensified the pressure last night by
revealing further details of the police questioning of Green, who was arrested on suspicion that he
had procured leaked documents from Chris Galley, a 26-year-old junior civil servant. Police
allegedly accused the MP of "grooming" the young civil servant, in what was seen as an attempt to
prove that Green had broken the law by offering inducements to procure leaked documents./ppA Tory
source said that Green was furious at the use of a word with such horrendous connotations. "This
was clearly designed to provoke Damian. This is typical of the cack-handed way the police have
handled this."/ppSuch revelations will add to the pressure on the Met, and specifically Stephenson,
who was seen as the favourite to succeed Sir Ian Blair as the new commissioner. He is understood to
have had a furious row with Johnson on Thursday after telling him of the impending arrest. /ppA
Scotland Yard source yesterday denied that anyone had been bugged as part of the inquiry, after
speculation that the police listened in to calls between Green and the civil servant accused of
leaking documents to him. Police sources stressed that they were investigating whether Green had
aided, abetted and encouraged the civil servant to procure the information. /ppSenior officers were
split over whether the MP should have been investigated or arrested at all, it emerged yesterday.
Some within Scotland Yard viewed the issue as a disciplinary one for the civil service, and not a
criminal matter at all./ppPublicly the Met is defending its actions, saying there was nothing
unusual about the use of 20 officers to carry out searches and the arrest of Green. "There were
four addresses, five officers for each address," the source said. /pp"The investigation is ongoing.
That is all we are saying."/ppThere was also a row brewing between the Crown Prosecution Service
and the police. The Guardian has been told that the CPS was involved in the decision by Bob Quick,
the Met's assistant commissioner of specialist operations, to arrest Green. But the CPS angrily
denied it was party to the decision to arrest, saying: "We were involved only in the preliminary
stages of the investigation."/ppIt emerged that the arrest had not been sanctioned by the new
director of prosecutions, Keir Starmer. A spokesman for the CPS said Starmer had only been informed
shortly before detectives swooped./ppThis is crucial to another growing row - the decision by the
Commons sergeant at arms, Jill Pay, and the speaker, Michael Martin, to allow police to search
Green's office. Pay reportedly gave the go-ahead after police told her that the DPP had given his
approval to the arrest. Martin is due to make a statement on Wednesday. /ppDominic Grieve, the
shadow home secretary, said the police may have misled Pay. "One way of reading the contradictory
explanations between the sergeant at arms and what the DPP has said is that the police misled her.
That's a very serious issue which needs to be looked into," he told Sky News./ppA spokesman for
Martin said: "The Speaker will be speaking to the house when the house returns."/ph2What the papers
say/h2p"If he was a drug dealer or people trafficker the tactics deployed by the police might be
defendable. As more details emerge however it is clear their actions were a disgrace." /ppstrongThe
Mail on Sunday/strong/pp"This is an appalling, indeed criminal, inversion of priorities. Damian
Green is not a threat to the security of this country." /ppstrongThe Sunday Telegraph/strong/pp"The
leaks made public by Mr Green embarrassed the government, but that does not constitute a threat to
national security." /ppstrongThe Observer/strong/pp"For new Labour, there are leaks and leaks;
those that are politically advantageous and those that are politically embarrassing." /ppstrongThe
Sunday Times/strong/pp"Just what heinous crime is he suspected of? Espionage, terrorism, high
treason? At worst he may be guilty of inciting a civil servant to pass on information."
/ppstrongThe News of the World/strong/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom:
10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/police"Police/a/lilia
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/damian-green"Damian Green/a/lilia
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/jacquismith"Jacqui Smith/a/lilia
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/conservatives"Conservatives/a/lilia
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/boris"Boris Johnson/a/lilia
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/london"London politics/a/lilia
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/london"London/a/li/ul/diva
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of
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