The civil servant who passed secret documents to Conservative immigration spokesman Damian Green insisted yesterday he acted in the public interest.
Christopher Galley, 26, was arrested in a dawn raid on his home by counter-terrorist police on November 19 in an inquiry into Home Office leaks which led to Mr Green’s own arrest last Thursday.
Mr Galley’s lawyer, Neil O’May, yesterday questioned whether the police operation was a “proportionate” response to the leaks, adding: “If there was ever a case of ‘don’t shoot the messenger’, then this is it.”
Mr Green’s arrest on suspicion of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office sparked fury at Westminster, with MPs demanding to know who gave police permission to enter parliament and search his office.
Pressure is mounting on Speaker Michael Martin, who has promised MPs a statement tomorrow.
Tory backbencher David Wilshire made a formal complaint to Mr Martin that the raid breached a ban on agents of the Crown entering the Commons, imposed after Charles I sent troops soldiers in to arrest MPs in 1642.
Another Tory MP, Richard Bacon, said there may need to be “a string of resignations”.
Mr Green was held for nine hours. Tory sources say he was accused of “grooming” Mr Galley and obtaining up to 20 documents. The MP denies all wrongdoing and has not been charged.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s spokesman yesterday agreed the case raised “some difficult and very sensitive issues” and did not rule out an eventual inquiry.
Mr O’May, of Bindmans Solicitors, said: “Mr Galley gave Damian Green information which was important for the public to know in an open and democratic parliamentary system.”
He said the leaked documents were “embarrassment material” with no national security significance.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw said: “I certainly understand the concern of my parliamentary colleagues.”
The president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), Ken Jones, issued a plea for the inquiry to be allowed to run its course. Mr Jones, tipped as a contender for next Metropolitan Police commissioner, said it was “proper” for Home Office Permanent Secretary Sir David Normington to call in police over the leaks.
SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson wrote to the House of Commons Serjeant at Arms, Jill Pay, seeking an urgent meeting. The Moray MP said: “My first duty is to my constituents, and the raid on the offices of Damian Green throw up troubling questions for all MP’s who are privy to the privileged and personal information of their constituents.
“The basis of the relationship between an MP and their constituents is trust and confidentiality, and until this point we had believed that this was safeguarded by parliamentary privilege.
“Members of Parliament should not work in the fear, as they scrutinise the activity of the UK Government, that their offices may be swooped upon by anti-terror police.”