Probe into police 'bugging' of MP

BBC reports that "Justice Secretary Jack Straw has ordered an inquiry into claims police bugged a Muslim Labour MP as he visited a friend and constituent in jail. Tooting MP Sadiq Khan and Babar Ahmad were recorded twice in Milton Keynes's Woodhill Prison, the Sunday Times says. The US is seeking to extradite Mr Ahmad on suspicion of running websites raising funds for the Taleban. Mr Straw said it would be "completely unacceptable" for an MP to be recorded while discussing constituent matters. The bugging is said to have been carried out by officers from Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch during visits by Mr Khan to the Milton Keynes jail in 2005 and 2006. The MP and government whip has been campaigning for Mr Ahmad, who faces no charges in the UK, to be released. According to the newspaper, the bugging device was hidden inside a hollowed-out table in the jail's main visiting hall.

BBC political correspondent Laura Kuenssberg said friends of Mr Khan believed he would be "furious". She said it was understood that no politicians were involved in any decision to bug Mr Khan's conversations and that staff at Woodhill Prison had raised concerns about the matter. It appeared that any such decision may have been taken by someone in the upper echelons of the Met Police, she said. Our correspondent added that there were concerns the news could seriously undermine relations between Muslim communities and the government. She said: "Sadiq Khan as a prominent Muslim MP, one of the first Muslim ministers, is one of the people who's trying to reassure members of Muslim communities to engage with government, to trust government. "This kind of thing will undermine some of the good work that he's been doing." The bugging of MPs by police has been barred since 1966. A principle was established by Harold Wilson's government, following a series of eavesdropping scandals, that conversations between constituents and their MPs should be confidential.
d other MPs have reacted angrily to the revelations. Khalid Mahmood, MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, said: "It's very regrettable. This member of Parliament deserves the respect which he has been given by his constituents.
And Thurrock MP Andrew McKinlay said it was "wholly unacceptable" for MPs to be under surveillance. "

Is that so? I find it not a little rich. In a week when one MP has been suspended for nepotism costing us the tax payters tens of thousands, I do not believe politicians to be so squeaky clean as to be above treasonable or any other suspicion.