NEARLY two years ago a junior civil servant in the Home Office immigration directorate approached the Tory party looking for a change of career. The CV of Chris Galley was promising enough to secure an interview with Damian Green, the shadow immigration minister, but he failed to land a job.

Despite the rebuff, the young man was to play a far more significant role in assisting Green’s political advance than any conventional researcher or adviser.

Galley resumed his civil service career, which included work in the private office of Jacqui Smith, the home secretary. Green became the recipient of a succession of leaked documents, which he used to embarrass the government.

The leaks to the Tories included information about thousands of illegal immigrants cleared to work as security guards and a letter from Smith to Gordon Brown raising her fears about crime rising in the recession. There was also a list — leaked to The Sunday Times — of more than 50 Labour MPs who opposed the government’s proposals to detain terror suspects for 42 days without charge.

As the leaks mounted, so did Smith’s fury. Some time over the summer, Sir David Normington, the top civil servant at the Home Office decided to call in the police.

At 5.50am on November 19, the 26-year-old was arrested during a raid on his home in Middlesex. The relationship between Galley and Green unravelled in spectacular fashion. Senior Westminster sources said that Galley quickly

implicated Green, in the leaking of the Home Office documents.

Galley, who was in hiding with a relative in the Midlands last night, is alleged to have told police that Green “induced” him to leak the documents.

It is understood that he agreed to co-operate with police, and Green’s name quickly emerged as the recipient of the leaks. According to reports Galley may even have telephoned Green in the days following his arrest. Scotland Yard insisted last night that its officers would not have been party to any attempt at entrapment.

Within days the Met made the fateful decision to arrest Green and raid his home and offices. Suggestions that Green had paid Galley for the leaks are said to have prompted detectives from Scotland Yard’s counterterrorist command to seize Green’s bank statements when they arrested him last Thursday. The suggestion has been dismissed as untrue by senior Tories.

The Tory MP’s wife, Alicia, said yesterday that her “blood ran cold” as nine detectives raided their London home, seizing 30-year-old love letters the couple had written to each other while at university. She said the operation had left the couple’s 15-year-old daughter in tears.

Green himself was arrested during a meeting at his constituency office in Ashford, Kent. He was taken to Belgravia police station, in London, where his DNA was taken and he was questioned for nine hours over allegations that he had conspired to commit “misconduct in public office”.

Police removed his laptop, his mobile phone and boxes of documents from his Commons office. His e-mail account, through which he corresponds with his constituents, was frozen.

The raids have outraged MPs from all parties and raised serious questions about ministerial interference in police operations.

Last night David Cameron, the Conservative leader, said Brown would be guilty of hypocrisy unless he spoke out, claiming: “If this approach had been in place in the 1990s, then Gordon Brown would have spent most of his time under arrest.” He insisted the arrest was “not about our national security but government embarrassment”.

David Blunkett, the former home secretary, described the raids as disproportionate and “unfortunate”. “We need a little less theatre,” he said.

David Davis, the former shadow home secretary, compared the operation to Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.

The ferocity of the criticism on the Metropolitan police “overkill” has stunned Scotland Yard. Significantly, it has raised questions over the future of Sir Paul Stephenson, who takes over as acting Met boss tomorrow, in the wake of the forced departure of Sir Ian Blair.

Until the Green operation, Stephenson was the favourite candidate to succeed Blair as the Met’s next commissioner.

The deadline for applications is noon tomorrow and Smith will make a decision early in the new year.

Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, who would be responsible for approving any criminal charges against the MP, appeared to distance himself from the police move.

The suggestion that the Met acted to please its political masters is potentially damaging, because that was one of the charges that led ultimately to the premature departure of Sir Ian Blair.

Yesterday the Met said that Stephenson had known about the decision to arrest Green “a few days before” the raids took place. However, a spokesman said he had not sought to interfere in the operational decision which was made by his immediate deputy, Bob Quick, the assistant commissioner in charge of counterterrorism.

As the spotlight focused on the role of Stephenson, a senior member of the Met’s watchdog accused him of misjudging the situation in a way that would have “catastrophic” consequences for the Met.

“Why didn’t they just [tell the Home Office] to use discipline and misconduct rules instead of agreeing to a criminal inquiry?” said the Metropolitan Police Authority official.

“I think this could damage Sir Paul’s prospects.”

Insiders say the investigation into Green was effectively overseen by Stephenson, with Blair, as outgoing commissioner, kept largely out of the loop. It was Stephenson who alerted Cameron and Boris Johnson, the London mayor, that the raids were about to go ahead.

Normington, who initiated the inquiry, will also chair the panel that will assess, interview and vet candidates for the position of new Met commissioner.

He said: “The Home Office has suffered a number of leaks of sensitive information over an extended period. Due to the nature of our business this was clearly a matter of serious concern . . . I therefore requested police assistance in trying to identify the sources of these leaks.”

Smith and Gordon Brown have distanced themselves from the row, saying they did not sanction the arrest and had no prior notice.

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of human rights group Liberty, said questions had to be asked about Stephenson’s role in agreeing to the police probe.

“If the home secretary says she didn't know about the Green operation, I believe her. But she has also made clear that she will appoint the new Met commissioner.

“The public will want to be satisfied that this operation was in no way a cack-handed attempt at currying favour with ministers in the run-up to the all-important permanent appointment.”

In an article in The Sunday Times today she says: “Just as Ian Blair is leaving the Yard in a cloud of bluster about political interference with policing, the bruised Met now faces the inevitable charge of interfering in the political process.”

Insiders at the Yard countered that they believe they have enough evidence to charge Green. Senior Metropolitan police sources said detectives had formed the view that Green was actively engaged in what they alleged may have been a political espionage operation targeting the private office of Smith.

Defending the Met from criticism of heavy-handiness during the raids on Green’s home and House of Commons office last week, a senior Met insider said: “This was not done lightly. Green was more than a surprised and grateful recipient of the leaks].

The disclosure raises the prospect of a high-profile Old Bailey trial at which allegations could emerge of political influence on the police.

The leaks that led to Green

The arrest of Damian Green is believed to be linked to four leaks of Home Office documents, none of which appears to threaten national security.

- November 12, 2007: e-mails suggest Jacqui Smith tried to conceal that 5,000 illegal immigrants had been given clearance to work as security guards, some in Whitehall.

- February 10, 2008: a letter suggests a cover-up involving an illegal immigrant working as a cleaner in the Commons.

- April 20, 2008: The Sunday Times obtains a file naming more than 50 MPs suspected of plotting to rebel against the government on the issue of detention without trial for 42 days.

- September 1, 2008: A draft letter from Jacqui Smith to No 10 reveals that the home secretary believes a recession will increase crime and boost recruitment to terrorist organisations.

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