Damian Green criticises bogus excuse for his arrest

Following publication of the review of lessons learnt from the Metropolitan Police's arrest of opposition front bench spokesman Damian Green MP, which criticised his arrest as "disproportionate", Damian Green issued a statement.

"This report reveals that the excuse of "national security" used to arrest me was entirely bogus", he said.

"The police were misled about the security risks by a senior official in the Cabinet Office, which is itself very disturbing. Then the police themselves used covert recordings to bug my conversations with officers, which is only legal in terrorist arrests. The more we find out about my arrest the more disgraceful it looks".

He asked why he had to wait another four months to be cleared when "once the authorities received the Johnston report in December it must have been obvious that no successful prosecution could be mounted".

Looking ahead, he said the O’Connor report is a "sensible attempt to change things in the future". Adding that, "these reports expose serious problems at the heart of the Government and in the Metropolitan Police. These need to be addressed urgently so that no one else, whether in public life or not, is treated in the same inept and bullying way."

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