Hints of a carefully choreographed climbdown by Brown and Smith

There was a reek of burning rubber around Westminster this afternoon after the Government threw its spin machine into reverse over the heavy-handed arrest and questioning of Opposition immigration spokesman Damian Green over the Home Office 'hunt the mole' affair.

The announcement that the Metropolitan Police's handling of the controversial inquiry into leaks from the Home Office is to be subjected to an urgent review by the Chief Constable of another force also raised fresh doubts about Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's fitness for office.

Smith had stubbornly refused to give an inch at the weekend over demands for an apology over the use of nine anti-terrorist police to arrest and question Green and raid his offices at the House of Commons.

But Prime Minister Gordon Brown today indicated that there may be further inquiries after the conclusion of the police investigation. His concession came as Harriet Harman held a crisis meeting with Smith and Justice Secretary Jack Straw to thrash out an agreed strategy for defusing the row.

Brown also spent the weekend in denial about the enormity of the constitutional issues raised, but shifted as Scotland Yard announced the Met's Acting Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson had called in the head of the British Transport Police Ian Johnston to look into his force's "decisions, actions and handling of the investigation".

Sir Paul said he was "properly concerned about the issues being raised within the continuing debate surrounding the ongoing investigation".

Johnston, who chairs the Association of Chief Police Officers crime committee, will deliver his interim findings to Sir Paul within seven days, followed by a full report in two weeks. In the meantime, the investigating team will hold discussions with the Crown Prosecution Service on the next steps in the investigation.

All this activity to silence the protests is supposed to be coincidental, but there are strong suspicions at Westminster that it is part of a carefully choreographed climbdown.

The PM said later: "There is going to be a time when all these things are going to be investigated and reviewed after the police have finished their work and MPs, of course, have got to be allowed to get on with their job.

"But no MP is above the law. There has got to be operational independence for the police. The police have got to be able to get on with their job without interference by politicians."

Hapless Home Secretary Jacqui Smith - who is looking more out of step with events every day - 'welcomed' Mr Johnston's review, and restated her support for the police's operational independence.

"No-one should seek to prejudice a police investigation in any way," she said. "These are very serious matters, and the police should be free to pursue their investigations without fear or favour."

Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said Smith appeared to be "finally... (doing) her job as Home Secretary in scrutinising the way the police are doing their job - not telling them what to do, but asking the searching questions that are her responsibility.

"This should have happened before any action was taken against Damian Green and the failure of that to happen has never been properly explained."

The dramatic shift in the Government's position has been brought about by the fear that the Government would be knocked off course tomorrow at the start of the Queen's Speech debate by protests led by David Davis, the former Shadow Home Secretary, over Green's treatment.

But that should not allow another highly significant fact to go unnoticed. Speaker Michael Martin, who will make a statement to MPs at 2.30pm tomorrow before the Queen's Speech debate gets underway, is facing renewed criticism for allowing police to invade the MP's private office in the first place.

Some reports have shifted the blame to the Serjeant-at-Arms Jill Pay who allegedly was told by the police that the raid had the approval of the DPP. She is said to have checked with the Clerk of the Commons Malcolm Jack - the Speaker's legal adviser in the House - who said it was OK providing it had DPP approval, and so she gave her approval.

However, the DPP's office today denied that version of events. A spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service this morning said: "The DPP was informed shortly before the arrest, but he was not involved in making any decisions about the arrest or searches. As is normal practice, these issues are operational matters for the police and our permission is not required."

That leaves two important questions - were the police lying to the Serjeant-at-Arms when they said they had DPP approval? Or did the Serjeant-at-Arms give the police her approval for the raid without seeking the agreement of the DPP?

These are questions that neither Brown's investigations nor the police inquiry will cover. The protestors are planning to tell the Speaker it is vital he allows an independent investigation by MPs into what happened and what the rules governing the invasion of MPs' offices are to be for the future.

The Mole's sympathies lie, of course, with Chris Galley, the whistleblower in the Home Office. But any fair-minded observer would have to say the Government's behaviour over the past few days has been appalling, and none more so than that of the Home Secretary who stamped her feet and started the hunt in the first place. She should be charged with wasting police time.

THE MOLE: GREEN ARREST LATEST

FIRST POSTED DECEMBER 2, 2008