Tom Griffin (London, OK):The Damian Green affair rumbled on this evening with a debate in the Commons which showed up the sharp divisions in the House over the affair. The Government's proposals for a Committee to examine the episode passed by 23 votes, with an amendment by Menzies Campbell to widen the Committee's remit being narrowly defeated. Both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats indicated they are likely to boycott the Committee in its current form.
Conservative MP David Jones notes Bob Marshall-Andrews' claim that Labour members were effectively whipped during the debate, a point which also exercises Ben Brogan.
Labour's Luke Akehurst thinks the Tories have over-stated their case:
Listening to the current range of Tory interventions in the House of Commons banging on with faux outrage about the Damian Green investigation being a threat to democracy, our ancient liberties etc., I am reminded of their predecessor Churchill's disastrous party political broadcast in the 1945 General Election campaign, suggesting Labour would institute a police state, which contributed to Labour's landslide victory that year.
In contrast, Spyblog believes there are very real issues at stake:
During the debate, Harriet Harman, the Leader of the House, who used to be a civil liberties lawyer, but who has obviously now been turned to the dark side, refused to give any sort of assurance to her opposite number the Conservative Teresa May, that the seizure of documents etc. in the Palace of Westminster did not also include far more than just items relating to Damian Green MP. She kept silent when directly asked to if this could also have included shared (Microsoft Exchange) email server and computer network drive computer resources, containing emails and documents from many other Members of Parliament, their constituents and other potential whistleblowers.
