Tories turn their fire on Liam Byrne in row over Damian Green's arrest
The Conservatives are trying to focus attention on Birmingham MP Liam Byrne (Hodge Hill), the Minister for the Cabinet Office, who they claim may have ordered the leak inquiry which led to the arrest of Tory immigration spokesman Damian Green.
The Shadow Home Secretary, Dominic Grieve, is pointing out that authority to order a leak inquiry rests with the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, who is accountable to Mr Byrne.
What's more, the Birmingham MP was the immigration minister when many of these leaks took place - and has good reason to want to find out what happened.
I'm not sure what they hope to achieve with this, other than to drag an up-and-coming Labour figure into the row.
Nobody has denied that the Government has the right to investigate, and try to stop, leaks from Government departments.
The controversial issue is whether an opposition MP is doing anything wrong in making use of information leaked to him.
Nobody is claiming that Mr Byrne ordered the police to arrest anyone (or has the authority to do so even if he tried).
Still, this seems to be the line of attack the Conservatives are pushing.
Meanwhile, some Labour MPs are rallying around Michael Martin, the Commons speaker who has been criticised for allowing police to search Mr Green's Commons offices.
Hall Green MP Steve McCabe (Lab) tells me that this is just another example of the "snobbish" attitude which has caused some MPs (and journalists) to attack Mr Martin since he began the job.
He doesn't fit their ideal of what a Commons speaker should look and sound like, apparently. Too working class and not posh enough, in other words.
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