No real bombshells in Jacqui Smith’s statement on the Damian Green affair earlier (video here). She pushed the same lines that we’ve heard from her throughout the past week: that it was right to involve the police; that she didn’t know anything about the arrest; that the leaks coming from the Home Office are a “serious matter” etc. etc.
As Andrew Sparrow points out, the most eye-catching moment was an intervention by John Reid. The former Home Secretary’s been relatively quiet over the past few months – but he popped up with a point of order during the Speaker’s statment yesterday, and today he hurled this barb in Smith’s direction:
“I have to say I’m surprised, to say the least, that she was not informed that her opposite number effectively was about to be arrested. I cannot think that if I had been told that this had been done after the event that I would have remained as placid as she has in the circumstances.
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