Police can bug MPs without asking Cabinet

The UK Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, told MPs today that thealleged bugging of a prominent Muslim MP's conversations with aconstituent had not been authorised by the cabinet.
But Straw also said the alleged snooping would not have breached theWilson doctrine banning the security services from bugging MPs, if itemerged any operation had been carried out by police.
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Yesterday's Sunday Times allegedthat conversations between Sadiq Khan MP and Babar Ahmad were tapedduring 2005 and 2006 by police officers. Ahmad is being held inWoodhill prison pending appeal against extradition to the US, whereprosecutors intend to try him on terror-related charges. In particular,Ahmad is alleged to have run a website promoting terrorism which washosted in America.

Responding to the Sunday Times report Straw told thecommons today that the allegations related to a type of "intrusivesurveillance" operation which can be carried out by British policeunder the 2000 Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA). Unlikethe intelligence and security services, the police are not required toseek a ministerial warrant for such eavesdropping, and Mr Straw was atpains to emphasise that no member of the Cabinet had issued one. Thusit came about, he said, that he had been unaware of the allegationsuntil Saturday.

Mr Straw said that the so-called "Wilson doctrine", under whichvarious kinds of eavesdropping against MPs have been forbidden bysuccessive governments, actually applied only to intelligence/securityoperations requiring a ministerial warrant. Strictly speaking,intrusive surveillance by police under RIPA was not forbidden.

Operations of this type can be authorised by "a chief officer of police", meaning the head of a given force, Straw said.

Nick Robinson, the Beeb political reporter, says he has been toldthat in fact the alleged operation was run by the Thames Valley police,not the obvious suspects - the secretive, specially-empoweredMetropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command.

Robinson's unnamed source also indicated that the Thames Valleyofficer in charge of the bugging will claim that he had approval fromhis chief constable, and that the operation was targeted at Mr Ahmad,not Mr Khan. When contacted this afternoon by the Reg, the Thames Valley force HQ had no comment to offer.

The Tories responded to Mr Straw's speech by saying that the allegedoperation was in breach of "the spirit if not the letter" of the WilsonDoctrine, and demanded to be told whether the eavesdropping on Mr Khanhad been premeditated.

Mr Straw had said that the allegations would be investigated by SirChristopher Rose, the Surveillance Commissioner and a former AppealCourt judge of great experience, "thoroughly... but quickly". He saidthat Sir Christopher would report in two weeks' time.

As Mr Khan was a practicing lawyer before entering Parliament, andwas said to have provided legal advice to Mr Ahmad, the tapedconversations might also have been protected by legal privilegeseparately from the MP-shielding Wilson Doctrine.

Razi Mireskandari, a partner at Simons Muirhead & Burton, which also does legal work for The Register,said that the possible violation of client privilege would only beauthorised by the police if they thought they had excellent reason.
"Sadiq Khan is a good, experienced lawyer," he told the Reg,adding that only solid evidence of wrongdoing by Mr Khan couldretrospectively justify eavesdropping on a solicitor's conversationwith a client, quite apart from an MP's with a constituent.