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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
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| Tory 'anger' over leak statement | Tory 'anger' over leak statement |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| The Tories have accused ministers of seeking to exert influence over the Commons speaker ahead of his statement about the Damian Green leak row. | The Tories have accused ministers of seeking to exert influence over the Commons speaker ahead of his statement about the Damian Green leak row. |
| They say a leaked e-mail shows Commons leader Harriet Harman inviting Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to discuss the statement with parliamentary officials. | They say a leaked e-mail shows Commons leader Harriet Harman inviting Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to discuss the statement with parliamentary officials. |
| The Tories said such a meeting would be "completely improper". | The Tories said such a meeting would be "completely improper". |
| The speaker is to make a statement amid anger from MPs at how police were able to search Mr Green's Commons office. | The speaker is to make a statement amid anger from MPs at how police were able to search Mr Green's Commons office. |
| Mr Green, the shadow immigration minister, was arrested on Thursday and held for nine hours on suspicion of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office in relation to an inquiry into leaks from the Home Office. | |
| The solicitor for the civil servant accused of leaking information to the MP said on Monday that he did it because it was material that was "important for the public to know". This is a completely improper meeting convened by the government privately with the Commons authorities and senior civil servants Dominic Grieve, shadow home secretary | |
| The leak inquiry and the police handling of the investigation has sparked a fierce political row with opposition leaders and some Labour MPs expressing concerns about how Mr Green was treated. | |
| Many MPs have expressed misgivings about how police were allowed to enter Parliament to search Mr Green's office, concerns which have prompted the Commons speaker Michael Martin to promise a statement on the matter on Wednesday. | |
| 'Stitch-up' | |
| But the Tories say that a leaked e-mail shows that ministers are seeking to "stitch up" a story about the background to the police action ahead of Wednesday's statement. | |
| The e-mail, the Tories claim, shows Commons leader Harriet Harman asking Ms Smith and a senior No 10 official to meet the clerk to the Commons and the sergeant at arms to "manage" the statement. | |
| "This is a completely improper meeting convened by the government privately with the Commons authorities and senior civil servants," said shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve. | |
| "This is precisely the sort of leak that should make it into the public domain." | |
| The Tories are insisting that they be present at the meeting, along with representatives of other opposition parties, to discuss the "issues" raised by the statement. | |
| The home secretary has defended the police's operational independence and insisted that she was not informed about the arrest in advance. |