---

Speaker's Committee on the Search of Offices on the Parliamentary Estate

I go on to say, then—I hope that the hon. Member for Ashford will agree with me—that I am astonished that the police chose to arrest him in these circumstances. I cannot understand why they did not question him or, if they wanted to take it one step further, question him under caution. The police seem these days to be a bit arrest-happy with quite a lot of people, including members of the Labour party and Labour Members in the House of Lords. The police then wanted to search the MP's home and his constituency office. I wonder whether they asked him if it would be okay to do so or just proceeded to a warrant. They then decided that they wanted to search his House of Commons office. I do not know whether they asked his permission—in quite recent times Labour Members have given their permission to police who wanted to search their offices—but it appears that they did not and that they did not get a warrant.