Brown Accused of Spinning Apology.

“I am sorry about what happened," Mr Brown said. “I take full responsibility for what happened. That’s why the person who was responsible went immediately.”

Damian Green and Chris Galley Cleared.

Shadow immigration minister, Damian Green, will not face charges in leaks row



Damian Green, the Conservative immigration spokesman, will not be charged in relation to his involvement in the leaking of information from the Home Office, it was announced today.

The announcement from the Crown Prosecution Service ends an ordeal that began in 2008 when Green was arrested and held on suspicion of collaborating with Christopher Galley, to leak information  to the Tories.

Galley will not face any charges either.

A spokesman for Green said that the MP was "delighted with the announcement".

"The police need now to learn the lessons from their operation. There was no necessity to arrest Mr Green, he should have been asked to attend the police station voluntarily. No credible reason has been advanced for the covert tape recording of him from arrest to arrival at the police station, and then failing to reveal this to him and me.

"The police themselves have now referred this to the surveillance commissioner. The search of his parliamentary office in the way it took place was highly questionable and no proper regard was given to issues of parliamentary privilege."


Today's decision is embarrassing for Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, whose department decided to call in the police after an internal inquiry failed to find the source of more than 20 leaks.

That move was criticised by the Commons home affairs committee today, which said in a report that government officials had given "an exaggerated impression of the damage done by the leaks" in a letter asking the police to intervene.

The MPs said there was a "clear mismatch" between the contents of the letter and the description of the leaks provided by the Home Office's top civil servant, Sir David Normington. 

Sir David told the committee "at least one" of the leaks had raised issues of national security but most had not and that one was "not the significant factor" in seeking police help.

Green has always insisted that, in releasing leaked information to the media, he was merely doing his job as an opposition MP in holding the government to account.