A defining day in the life of Damien Green

This week MPs will rightly demand explanations for the astonishing arrest of Shadow Immigration Minister Damien Green MP, alongside police raids of his home and office, within the precincts of Parliament itself.

You elect MPs to govern and to hold the Government to account. There are longstanding rules, called Parliamentary privilege, to allow MPs (particularly in Opposition) to do their job. If we unearth information uncomfortable for the Government of the day, unless this has a national security implication, it is part of our duty to challenge the Government to explain itself.

Damien Green's nine hours of questioning by police last week conjured up memories of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, famously imprisoned for criticising Stalin in 1945. Our hard won democratic freedoms exist precisely as a defence against the totalitarianism of a police state.

There seems no national security issue to have been at stake. Yet counter-terror legislation and anti-terror police were used.

This was a gross infringement of an MP's rights. It raises the suspicion that this Government is prepared to go to even more extraordinary lengths to hide the truth and bury bad news.

Politicians of all parties have called for an immediate investigation. This needs to include the role of The Speaker in sanctioning a police search on the Parliamentary estate. Meanwhile Government Ministers behave like the Three (blind, deaf and dumb) Monkeys, in denial of any involvement. Their protestations of ignorance seem barely credible.

Last week began with a Pre Budget Report which defined the end of New Labour. The week ended with police action which could well mark the end of public confidence in this Labour Government.