The policeman who ordered the arrest of Damian Green, the Conservative frontbencher, will face questions today from a Commons committee of MPs.

Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, head of counter-terrorism at Scotland Yard, will be questioned over whose advice he sought before arresting Mr Green, which government departments were informed in advance and the legality of the search operation during which his officers wore covert recording devices.

The Times understands that Mr Quick has been on leave from the Metropolitan Police since the beginning of the year after he and his family were forced to move house after a newspaper report that was deemed to have compromised their personal security.

Mr Quick had to apologise for claiming, after that report, that “the Tory machinery” was undermining his investigation into leaks of sensitive Home Office information to Mr Green — allegedly by Christopher Galley, a Home Office civil servant. Senior sources say that the Green affair has led to a breakdown in relations between Mr Quick and the new Met Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, and that the two men are barely speaking.

The Met had initially refused to take part in the select committee’s hearings into the affair until it received assurance that officers would not face detailed questions about the ongoing investigation.

Keith Vaz, the Home Affairs Select Committee’s chairman, has emphasised that his inquiry is examining “the process of policing and Home Office leaks”.

The committee has already questioned Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, and Sir David Normington, the Home Office permanent secretary, who asked police to investigate the leaks.

Sir David told the committee, last month, that he was taken aback when Mr Quick called him in November to say that police were about to search Mr Green’s offices. He said: “I was extremely surprised. I said something like, ‘Well, I hope you have the evidence for that’.”

It was only in a second telephone call, about 35 minutes later, that he was told Mr Green had been arrested.

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