MPs have no more legal protection against having their communications intercepted by the intelligence agencies than their constituents, judges ruled yesterday.
The so-called Wilson doctrine, which is supposed to exempt MPs’ and peers’ phones from being tapped unless there is a national emergency, is not enforceable in English law, according to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which oversees MI5 and MI6.
Lawyers acting for Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP, said that blanket monitoring operations revealed by the US whistleblower Edward Snowden, including by GCHQ, breached the doctrine, which originated in 1966 when Harold Wilson pledged that MPs’ and peers’ phones would not be tapped.
Ms Lucas said: “This judgment is a body blow for parliamentary democracy. My constituents have a right to know that their communications with me aren’t subject to blanket surveillance — yet this ruling suggests that they have no such protection.
“Parliamentarians must be a trusted source for whistleblowers and those wishing to challenge the actions of the government.”
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Rosa Curling, from the lawyers Leigh Day, which brought the action, said: “Promises made by successive prime ministers about the Wilson doctrine were not worth the paper they were written on.”
The prime minister’s spokeswoman said that the doctrine remained in place but it had been made clear that in some circumstances “it is possible for the intelligence agencies to act in a way which is targeted”.