After this morning’s shock Daily Mail splash on Patrick Rock’s arrest, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman was grilled on the case at the noon lobby briefing. He repeatedly told journalists that the matter was immediately referred to the National Crime Agency.
But why was the arrest, which took place on in the early hours of 13 February, not briefed to the press – until it leaked last night? The spokesman said:
‘Well, hold on. Number 10 immediately referred this to the National Crime Agency. Of course, this is all directly linked to a police investigation and I don’t think we would proactively comment on that… I think that when… I think it is no surprise that we would not comment proactively on police investigations…When a question was put to us, we responded, obviously subject to the constraints of there being an ongoing police investigation.’
But why didn’t Downing Street announce that the deputy director of the Policy Unit had resigned?
‘There’s a direct link to a police investigation, that’s the explanation… I don’t think people would expect us to proactively comment on things that were directly linked to police investigations.
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