§ Mr. Winnickasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will call for a report from the Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis as to the interviewing by Metropolitan police officers of a former editor of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament over internal matters relating to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; why this was done; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. BrittanI assume that the hon. Member is referring to reports that a Mr. Stanley Bonnett, the former editor of the CND magazineSanity, supplied certain information to special branch officers. The functions of special branches are set out in the published guidelines issued by the Home Office on 19 December 1984, and I am assured by the commissioner that no inquiries have been initiated by the Metropolitan police special branch outside the terms of those guidelines. I have made it clear on a number of occasions that peaceful political campaigning to change the mind of the Government or of people generally about the validity of nuclear disarmament does not come within the definition of subversion which is given in the guidelines.