Tories sweep Green's home, car and offices for bugging devices

Conservative MP Damian Green has had his offices and homes swept for bugging devices amid fears he was being kept under surveillance, his constituency agent said last night.

It is understood the Tory’s immigration spokesman hired a private security firm to look for bugs at his constituency home in Charing and association offices in Bethersden, Kent, yesterday while his London residence, Westminster office, and a previously impounded car, were examined on Thursday. No bugs were found in the searches but the fact they were carried out illustrates the depth of his concern about the ongoing police investigation into leaks from the Home Office.

Mr Green, MP for Ashford, Kent, was arrested on 27 November “on sus

picion of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office and aiding and abetting, counselling or procuring misconduct in a public office”. That followed the arrest and suspension of a 26-year-old Home Office official.

It emerged yesterday that the police used an obscure piece of common law to arrest Mr Green, as the Official Secrets Act explicitly rules out prosecutions for the type of leaks of which he was accused of publicising.

Freedom of information campaigners said police “subverted the will of Parliament” by using common law to detain him when court action for leaks that do not threaten national security or the fight against crime were ruled out by Parliament nearly 20 years ago.

Mr Green has always insisted that he had been doing his public duty in holding the Government to account and would continue to do so.

Perhaps with that in mind, his agent, Gordon Williams, said: “Damian is very anxious to maintain the confidentiality of his electors’ parliamentary case work. Clearly the offices in Bethersden were occupied for quite some time without us personally being present.

“We cannot guarantee the integrity of the office while we’re not here, so to avoid the possibility of any listening devices being planted we decided to have the offices in Bethersden swept and also the parliamentary office, car and London and constituency homes.”