The Serjeant at Arms has to go

It is hard to see how anyone can have confidence in the Serjeant at Arms. It is incredible that having been warned that an MP might be arrested and that the police might search a Commons office, she did not think to check what the rules and precedents surrounding this were. This is nothing less than a dereliction of duty on her part.

Some on the left are trying to claim that she is a victim of sexism and maybe some of her critics are sexists, but it is hard to see how anyone can think that she has performed her duties competently. It was telling that Harriet Harman—who no one could accuse of being a misogynist—was not prepared to say she had full confidence in the Serjeant at Arms and the Speaker when asked this repeatedly by Jeremy Paxman.

Harman, who to her credit has not forgotten her civil liberties roots during this crisis, made a sensible suggestion on Newsnight.