JACK Straw has called for a full investigation in to whether the Metropolitan Police’s special branch spied on him when he was Home Secretary in overall charge of the London force.

The retiring Blackburn MP fears the alleged covert surveillance might have been sparked by his 1998 creation of a judicial inquiry into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993 and detectives handling of the investigation .

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He raised claims by whistle-blower Peter Francis that he read secret files on 10 MPs while working for the Met’s special branch in the ‘90s. They included Mr Straw and fellow Labour cabinet ministers Peter Hain and Harriet Harman. He tackled police minister Mike Penning on the issue in the Commons.

Labour wants the claims investigated in a probe led by senior judge Lord Justice Pitchford into the activities of undercover policing and the Met’s controversial “Special Demonstration Squad”.

Mr Straw said: “Do you accept that if the allegations are correct, we have an extraordinary situation where I as Home Secretary, and from 1997 to 2000 the police authority for the Metropolitan Police, not only knew nothing about what appears to have been going on within the Metropolitan Police, but may also have been subject to unlawful surveillance as Home Secretary? “That ought to be looked at, as should what appears to be the trigger and is much more serious: my decision, taken against a lot of reluctance from the Metropolitan Police, to establish a full judicial inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence.”

Mr Penning replied that Mr Straw being in the dark about surveillance was what the inquiry had to consider.

He said: “Lord Justice Pitchford must have full access. I m sure he will give you all the help he can to find out why Home Secretaries, ministers and police managers were not informed about what was going on in the Met.”