I was deeply disappointed to read this account of former Speaker Michael Martin’s evidence to the Commons committee investigating the Damian Green affair.
Lord Martin appears to be laying the lion’s share of the blame for allowing the police into the Commons upon the Serjeant at Arms, Jill Pay, and the Commons clerk, Dr Malcolm Jack.
The fact is that, when Martin knew that the police wanted to arrest an MP, which was the day before the raid, he should have made it his personal business to investigate the background to the request and satisfy himself that it was right for the police to enter the Commons – which would have been, by any standards, a most remarkable thing.
Despite refusing to accept blame for the Green affair, Martin acknowledged to the committee that “the House through its Speaker was not served as well as it ought to have been”.
That, I am afraid, is self-evidently true.
