Illegal immigrants guarding the prime minister's car; secret predictions of a looming crime-wave; security guards without the proper paperwork. In recent years a series of embarrassing leaks from within the Home Office has fallen into the hands of the Conservative Party, causing anxiety within the government and great glee among newspapermen. Now, it seems, the leaker has been caught, and the scoops may dry up. But the plugging of the leak has turned into an even bigger story.rnIt began with a knock on the door of Damian Green, the Conservative spokesman on immigration, on November 27th. Mr Green was arrested, held for nine hours, and had his home and offices subjected to a good rummaging by police. The civil-servant mole, 26-year-old Christopher Galley, had been arrested a week earlier and apparently confessed to passing information to Mr Green. Police are still investigating: more leaks, more moles and more recipients may yet be outed.rnThey are unlikely to be treated as roughly as Mr Green, given the outcry in Parliament over the affair. Receiving and publicising leaks is part of an mp's job, opposition parties have pointed out. Many within Labour are angry too. Harriet Har-man, the deputy prime minister (who was herself reportedly accused of leaking courtrndocuments as a junior mp), said she was "very concerned" at Mr Green's treatment. Some might have enjoyed the sight of an mp being taken down a peg or two, but many more felt a Zimbabwean chill at watching security forces march into Parliament to raid the offices of the opposition.
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