Lynne Featherstone

Well – hurrah! The High Court has just ruled that it was illegal for the Serious Fraud Office to drop its investigation into corruption around the Al Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia. Of course – the reason the SFO dropped the investigation was that the Prime Minister and Attorney General put heavy pressure on them. As I’ve said before – so much for Labour’s ‘tough on crime’ rhetoric when they put the pressure on to axe criminal investigations when it suits.

What now? Well, Gordon Brown – here’s your chance to step up and show you really are a change from Tony Blair’s discredited regime. Will you now back a full investigation and see it through, to wherever the allegations of law breaking take it?

We should also see a public inquiry into how on earth we ended up in this mess – where Labour Party ministers pressurised the SFO into breaking the law. I and my colleagues have been calling for an inquiry for some time – but there’s no time like the present to sign our petition if you haven’t yet.