Justice Secretary Jack Straw was aware last December that Labour MP Sadiq Khan had met with a terrorism suspect in prison, but had not heard suggestions their conversations were bugged, the British government said tonight.
The secretary had told the House of Commons on Monday that he was first alerted on Saturday February 2nd to reports that the conversations had been bugged after The Sunday Timesapproached his office.
The allegations of bugging suggest that the so-called Wilson Doctrine, under which security services and police do not record conversations of members of parliament, may have been violated.
The Justice Ministry press office said prison officials were aware in December that the press was interested in Khan's visit to Woodhill Prison in Milton Keynes - including suggestions he may have been bugged.
But it said Mr Straw was not aware at the time that any element of this story included a bugging allegation.
"No submission was received by the Ministry of Justice private office on this issue," the ministry said in a statement.
"The Justice Secretary's impression at this time was that this was an attempt at a smear story about Sadiq Khan MP and his involvement with a prisoner," it said.
Mr Straw announced to the House yesterday an immediate inquiry into the report that Khan, MP for Tooting and a former human rights lawyer, had been bugged.
The Sunday Timessaid anti-terrorist police had bugged Khan's conversations with Babar Ahmad, a prisoner fighting extradition to the United States where he is accused of running Web sites supporting terrorism.
Meanwhile, a former policeman accused of carrying out the bugging said he thought the operation was unjustified but felt under pressure to carry it out, newspapers reported his lawyers as saying.