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UK Speaker of the Commons has story contradicted - likely to resign

by Dave Keating | December 5, 2008 at 12:36 am

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The controversy surrounding the arrest of Tory MP Damian Green continues to reverberate in the UK. Now the police are contradicting the story of the Speaker of the House of Commons that he was not informed of the arrest before it happened, which he told the commons on Wednesday. Now there is speculation he will have to resign after his story was contradicted.

The police's intervention came after senior Government ministers declined to back Mr Martin in the wake of his admission that police had raided the shadow minister's office without a legal warrant.

The raid on Mr Green's office has sparked a constitutional crisis with many MPs claiming that the police action had threatened to undermine Parliamentary privilege.

Earlier this week, Mr Martin was forced to admit that the police search had been approved by Jill Pay, the Serjeant at Arms, and that she had not requested a warrant.

Mr Martin had been made aware of the police request to enter Parliament but failed to intervene.

In a statement to Parliament earlier this week, Mr Martin attacked the police for allegedly failing to set out to Mrs Pay the correct warrant process - as he claimed they should have. He expressed "regret" over the conduct of the police and sought to blame his officials for the debacle.