Met blasts ex-Speaker after he calls raid police 'crafty'

Former Speaker Lord Martin started a row with Scotland Yard today by accusing police of "tricking" their way into the Commons to search an MP's office.

The Metropolitan Police denied the claim made by the ex-Speaker in evidence to MPs about the raid on shadow immigration minister Damian Green's office. Lord Martin, who this summer became the first Speaker to be ousted for more than 300 years, told the special Commons committee on issue of privilege that he had been "let down" by a senior official who failed to require a warrant for the search.

But he said that when he demanded an explanation from Serjeant at Arms Jill Pay, her boss Malcolm Jack, the Commons Clerk and chief executive, blamed the police. "I asked the Serjeant why she had conducted herself in this manner," Lord Martin told the MPs.

"The Clerk of the House intervened to say that Chief Superintendent Bateman had bamboozled the Serjeant and tricked her into keeping the matter from her immediate superiors." Asked if he believed the police had targeted the consent of the Serjeant because they did not think they would secure a warrant, he said: "We have a word in Scotland called 'sleekit' and they were being sleekit." Sleekit can mean being "crafty", "smooth" or "untrustworthy".

A Metropolitan Police Service spokeswoman said it was "surprised" by the claims about Ed Bateman, who remains in charge of security at the Commons: "At no point did Chief Superintendent Bateman, or any officer from the MPS, attempt to 'bamboozle' or 'trick' anyone in this matter." She said the Met would present evidence to the committee to disprove the allegations.