SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 7.12.08
Gordon Brown gave me leaked Whitehall secrets
He was a young Opposition politician motivated by an admirable sort of idealism. He believed the establishment was arranging things, which mattered hugely to his constituents, entirely on their own terms. He felt that the public should be informed about big issues which touched on their livelihoods and safety.
By Michael Gove
So when a leak came, indeed when a series of leaks came, that blew open just what was going on behind closed doors, he shared the information with me.
The young Opposition politician in question? Gordon Brown.
In the early 1990s, when the Prime Minister was in the shadow cabinet, I worked for Scottish Television. Gordon had cut his teeth as a producer for STV years before. Not only did he appreciate how broadcast news operated, he was also co-operative towards young journalists at his old station. That is why he would always make time to troop out to the rain-soaked green outside the Commons to share with me details of the latest leaked document he had received.
As shadow trade and industry spokesman, Gordon was developing a formidable Commons reputation and was clearly in the party's top three performers. He had the safest of seats in Fife and a loyal phalanx of supporters within the Scottish Labour Party. He had no particular need to cultivate his own, very secure, backyard. But he took the trouble to keep me informed because the leaks touched on a constituency issue that mattered hugely to him – the future of the Rosyth naval base, which was smack on his doorstep.
Over a prolonged period, Gordon was in receipt of a whole series of documents which led him to believe the Government was preparing to do the dirty on Rosyth. He feared that electoral calculations would lead the Government to favour naval bases in Tory seats down South, when ministers should be standing by Rosyth.
He fought a tenacious campaign, which as a young reporter I appreciated being able to cover. And what gave the campaign an extra edge and panache, indeed what gave it the ability to dominate the Scottish media and influence Cabinet opinion, was the potency of the leaks. Papers flowed from the heart of the Ministry of Defence into Gordon Brown's office and straight onto the nation's newsdesks.
Papers which gave Gordon a fantastic platform. But papers which also, crucially, touched not just on his constituents' security of employment but also the security of the nation.
For Rosyth was home not just to Type 42 destroyers but was also a base for refitting the nuclear submarines which provide Britain with its deterrent. And the leaks we received came, as Gordon often pointed out himself, at a time when British forces were committed in the Middle East against Saddam Hussein.
Of course, at the time, Gordon argued he was enhancing our national security. Securing guarantees for Rosyth's future was in the national interest, he maintained. And I saw force of the argument then.
But if that justification was valid when Gordon Brown was an opposition politician, then what does it say about the Prime Minister's attitude now? It seems hypocritical to say the least for Gordon to argue that my colleague Damian Green has committed some sort of grave sin by publicising information he has received. Damian has placed information in the public domain, about the Government's failure to police immigration, which is crucial to the national debate about how we secure our borders. No-one has argued that the public debate has been cheapened or demeaned by Damian's actions.
Exposing the fact that thousands of illegal immigrants are working in the security industry is important, and a telling example of the Government's failure to get a grip on a hugely sensitive issue. But, in security terms, there's a difference between what happens with Group Four guards and what happens with Trident submarines. And it must be clear, even to the most partisan Labour stooge, which is the bigger national security issue.
Police will continue to ask their questions. But that mustn't stop opposition politicians asking serious questions too.
Why did officials decide that this was a criminal investigation and not a simple matter of breach of an employment contract? As Maurice Frankel of the Campaign for the Freedom of Information has pointed out, the law was specifically changed in 1989 to ensure these sorts of leaks were employment issues, not criminal matters. What was the ministerial involvement in launching this investigation and who within Government, at whatever level, has been kept informed about the its progress? What national security issues are really at stake? Are they anything like as serious as the nationals security issues raised by the MoD leaks to Gordon Brown in the 1990s? And if they're not, then why do the police think it right to arrest someone now when they didn't then?
Above all, why should the full investigative power of the criminal justice system be used to harass and intimidate a politician who has exposed Government failure? And why won't Gordon Brown tell us what he thinks? He was never so shy 17 years ago when the leaks were all coming his way.
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* Michael Gove is the shadow secretary of state for children, schools and families
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NEWS OF THE WORLD 7.12.08
GREEN IN THE CLEAR
TORY MP Damian Green and his Home Office mole will NOT be charged in the leak scandal, the News of the World can reveal.
Prosecutors say papers seized from Mr Green’s Commons office cannot be used as evidence in a trial.
They add that cops FAILED to conduct a proper search in Westminster.
The conclusions, in a secret early review by the Crown Prosecution Service, coincide with the initial findings of an independent police probe.
That investigation is already concluding the case is “not prosecutable”, and the decision to arrest the Shadow Immigration Minister was “over the top”.
One source said: “This was a sledgehammer to crack a nut by Scotland Yard—totally disproportionate.”
The findings are a humiliation for Met Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, head of the counter-terrorism unit.
The view is growing that the original arrest decision, made by a chief inspector, was simply rubber-stamped and the implications not properly considered by his ultimate boss, Mr Quick. Acting Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson told Quick: “You are completely f**king me over, you know. I will get the blame when it all goes wrong.”
Cops had told the Commons’ Serjeant at Arms, Jill Pay, they wanted to search an MP’s office but failed to tell her WHO the MP was.
A top CPS source said: “Police must state clearly who they are investigating and why they wish to carry out a search. This did not happen until after they had obtained permission.
“Therefore the evidence would be subject to a sustained legal challenge.”
Police found that mole Christopher Galley only passed on documents relating to immigration—not terrorism. He faces Home Office disciplinary proceedings and is expected to be dismissed.
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POLITICS HOME 7.12.08
Comments on Police Scandal
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Andrew Marr Show, BBC One at 09:38
Grieve: Police inquiry "going nowhere"
Dominic Grieve, Shadow Home Secretary
Mr Grieve said he believed the police inquiry into Damian Green was "running into the sand" and predicted there would be no prosecutions from it.
He also denied Mr Green had offered the Whitehall mole any inducements, saying it would be "unethical" to do so. He also said many MPs "do not wish to threaten the Speaker" but insisted they wanted to see swift action to ensure such an episode could not happen again.
"My hunch is the police inquiry is running into the sand. It is going nowhere. I do not believe there will be any prosecutions arising out of this at all. No offences have been committed," he said.
He rejected suggestions the civil servant who had done the leaking, and who had once stood as a Tory councillor, had been offered any inducement.
"I am absolutely convinced he was not encouraged or induced to do anything. It would be unethical to induce somebody. I do not believe Damian would have done any such thing and he has told me he did not."
He confirmed Mr Green had sought advice from him when the leaker applied for a job with him.
"He wanted to make it clear there could be no suggestion there were any inducements at all," he said.
Asked about the Speaker's position, he said: "Many people do not want to threaten the Speaker's position but do want to see action taken to ensure this episode is never repeated."
He added that the Commons authorities had "failed in their duty" to protect MPs and attacked the government for using the motion on the affair, to be debated tomorrow, to "push the matter into the long grass."
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Sunday Live, Sky News at 10:05
Davis: No need for "tribal battle" over Speaker's position
David Davis, Conservative MP and former Shadow Home Secretary
Mr Davis criticised the arrest of Tory MP Damian Green for potentially "intimidating legitimate whistleblowers" but refused to join those MPs who are calling for the Speaker's resignation over the affair.
"I am not one of those who is going down the route of calling for the Speaker's head and so on, simply that would reduce this to a tribal battle," he said.
He said he believed that the arrest was caused by "systemic errors" and was not the responsibility of particular individuals.
Mr Davis said the most damaging effect of the arrest was that: "it may intimidate legitimate whistleblowers, who've got an important part in our society, bluntly, keeping government honest, all governments, blue and red."
Asked if he expected to be questioned by the police over the affair, given his expertise in the area, he said: "I'm sort of surprised they didn't question me before this whole thing happened."
He criticised the police for suggesting to the media that he may be questioned.
"The police should not do this, they should not go out and brief the press on what their prospective plans are," he said.
Asked if he ever hoped to return to the Conservative frontbench, Mr Davis said he was "not fussed about that."
"The truth of the matter is, I've been on the television and radio more since I've been a backbencher," he said.
But he added: "If they need me back to do something serious, then of course I'll do my duty.
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Sunday Live, Sky News at 11:05
Beckett: Tory behaviour "close to intimidation of the police"
Margaret Beckett, Housing Minister
Ms Beckett said that the Conservatives behaviour over the arrest of Tory MP Damian Green was: "getting close to intimidation of the police." She insisted that the concerns raised by the leaks were legitimate and that the inquiry should be allowed to pursue all avenues of inquiry. [But that’s the point. The police inquiry is, naturally, being conducted by the police who have forfeited any right to have their opinions respected! -cs]
"One of the things that I find increasingly disturbing is the degree to which people are speaking as if they know everything," she said.
She added: "I don't think any of us should be commenting on an inquiry that is still to close."
Asked about question marks over the future of the Speaker, she said that it was " wholly inappropriate" for frontbenchers from any party to comment.
"Neither the government, nor the frontbench of the opposition should be in a position where they are pronouncing on the future of the Speaker one way or another, it whould be wholly inappropriate," she said.
She added that MPs should follow the "long-standing tradition" that all members support the Speaker elected by the house.
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The Politics Show, BBC One at 12:30
Labour guilty of "disgraceful smear" over Green arrest, says Tory minister
James Brokenshire, Shadow Home Affairs Minister
Mr Brokenshire accused Labour of carrying out a "disgraceful smear" over the arrest of Tory MP Damian Green, and said they were focusing on London Mayor Boris Johnson's role in the affair to deflect attention away from that of the Home Secretary.
He said: "I think that there's been a disgraceful smear that's taken place, to take the pressure off the Home Secretary as to why she wasn't informed about this."
He rejected claims that there were legitimate avenues of inquiry to pursue over the leaks, and said: "The criminal law should only be applied in exceptional issues, where there are counter-terrorism issues, where there are threats to national security." He added: "this has simply been a question of incompetence in the Home Office."
Mr Brokenshire denied that this was a narrow, sectional issue of concern only to MPs, and emphasised: "What we are standing up for is the rights of the public, the right of the public to be able to contact their MP without fear or favour."
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The Politics Show, BBC One at 12:30
Pound: We have to respect police independence
Stephen Pound, Labour MP
Mr Pound denied claims that the arrest of Tory MP Damian Green was an unreasonable breach of parliamentary privilege.
He said: "we have to respect the police who make the operational decision" [one result of this imbroglio is that the police have forfeited the right to any respect at all -cs] and added that while MPs had certain legal privileges, "that doesn't make us above the law, that doesn't give us a get out of jail free card."
Over claims that the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith should have know more about the arrest, he said: "I would be particularly worried if we ever got to the stage that the Home Secretary....is the person who second guesses the police."
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