The furore over the arrest of Conservative shadow immigration secretary   Damian Green for leaking government documents has reached such a pitch that there is talk of MPs disrupting Wednesday’s state opening of parliament.

Editorials over the weekend were full of reminders that Winston Churchill had leaked evidence that Britain was not prepared for the Nazi threat and that Gordon Brown himself has been happy in the past to disclose confidential information. It is part of an opposition MP’s job to hold the government to account, they argued, and no part of the police’s job to act in such a heavy handed way.

Some have even drawn parallels with the infamous “birds have flown” episode in the run-up to the English civil war when Charles I tried — and failed — to arrest  five prominent MPs who had been consistently opposing his plans. 

Now, though, newspapers are reporting that Green had been cultivating a junior Home Office civil  servant with a view to regularly obtaining confidential government documents.

What’s your view? Have police have overstepped the mark here or has Green? And should a government have the right to plug information leaks in this way?