Senior Labour politicians today criticised police over the dawn arrest of one of Prime Minister Tony Blair's key advisers in a probe into allegations state honours were sold in return for party funding.
Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said she was "slightly bewildered" by yesterday's arrest of Ruth Turner, director of government relations in Blair's office.
Ms Turner was later released without charge after she had been questioned at a London police station. "She has fully cooperated and she is a person of utter decency and conscientousness and I am surprised," Ms Jowell told BBC radio.
Former Home Secretary David Blunkett questioned the need for the "theatrical" arrest at 6:30 a.m. at Ms Turner's home.
"This was done in a way that was known to be likely to get the sort of publicity it clearly has got," he told BBC radio. Reports of the arrest led the front pages of many British newspapers.
"If there was some good reason that Ruth Turner was about the leave the country - which clearly she was not - (or) that she was likely to be able to disappear - which clearly she can't - then it would have been a different ball game," Mr Blunkett said.
Officers arrested Ms Turner in connection with alleged offences under a 1925 law banning the sales of state honours and on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. Ms Turner denied she had done anything wrong.