Smash hit

In a brief chronology of events, Mr Martin said that the Metropolitan Police had contacted Ms Pay last Wednesday and warned her that an MP might be arrested and charged, although without naming him. She informed him "in the strictest confidence".

He added: "At 7am on Thursday police called on the Serjeant-at-Arms and explained the background to the case and disclosed to her the identity of the Member.

"The Serjeant called me, told me the Member’s name and said that a search might take place of his offices in the House. I was not told that the police did not have a warrant," he added, to cries of surprise and a shout of "shame!"

Mr Martin went on: "I have been told that the police did not explain, as they are required to do, that the Serjeant was not obliged to consent or that a warrant could have been insisted on.

"I regret that a consent form was then signed by the Serjeant-at-Arms without consulting the Clerk of the House."

The row over Mr Green's arrest all but eclipsed the grandest annual state occasion today as the Queen outlined her Government's legislative agenda for the year ahead.

In this afternoon's statement to a packed and febrile House, Mr Martin reminded MPs that they were not above the law and said that parliamentary privilege did not preclude police searches in the Palace of Westminster in the event of criminal investigations.

He said that he would himself be nominating seven "senior and experienced" MPs to report back to him as soon as possible.

The motion to create that committee would be moved by the Government on Monday, at which point MPs would be able to debate the wider issue.

Mr Martin's statement was followed by interventions by a series of Commons grandees, including the former Conservative leader Michael Howard who summed up the anger felt by many parliamentarians over the past week.

He told Mr Martin: "You Sir, of course, will readily appreciate the outrage which was felt in all sides of the House over the attack on the ability of one of its members to do the job he was sent here to do - namely to represent his constituents and to hold the Government to account."

Mr Howard said that police had removed Mr Green’s computer, containing constituency casework, seized his mobile phone and disconnected his home phone. The Speaker said when he discovered the computer had been taken, he ordered Ms Pay to instruct the police to return it on Monday so Mr Green could resume his work as an MP.

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