Even if that is not the case the MPs should at least be waiting for whistleblower colleagues as parliament security makes it almost impossible for rogue outsiders to get in.
The opposition offices in the parliament can be accessed through the Portcullis House which can be in turn accessed from the main parliament house entrances and the metro station under the House.
The Palace of Westminster entrances are heavily guarded by the police and all MPs and visitors are subject to security checks that require special passing documents.
This is while aside from the entrance security regime, the very fact that the Labour offices are not close at hand and easily found in the parliament building, suggests the break-in has been an inside job.
“These offices won’t be found by chance. Someone who didn’t know their way around would find it difficult. This suggests a pass-holder,” The Independent quoted a parliamentary source as saying.
The concerns over an insider’s involvement with the forced entry have raised fears that sensitive material could have been burgled with a potential to brew for Britain something akin to the US Watergate scandal, which followed the June 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington.
The scandal, which involved plotting to damage the reputation of the rival political party, led to the resignation of the then Republican US president Richard Nixon and detention of 43 of his members of staff.
Such speculations gain momentum when considering the fact that the building where the Labour offices are located lacks CCTV coverage as the CCTV coverage map would not be available to an outsider who will find it extremely risky to force a parliamentary office under 24/7 surveillance.
The Labour party has confirmed that their leader’s office has not been targeted saying the forced door rather belonged to a policy room.
Nevertheless, the party has said it does not know what was missing expressing concerns about the fact that such a security breach can happen within the parliament house.
“We do not know whether anything was taken. We do not know the motivation for this crime,” a Labour source said. “But we are deeply concerned that this can take place within the Palace of Westminster.”
This is while the fact that the Labour leader has access to highly confidential material related to national security, that his office was untouched during the break-in and a Labour “policy office” was targeted raise questions whether the burglars were searching for potentially embarrassing material that could damage Labour’s reputation in order to benefit its political rivals including the ruling Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.
Such speculations raise the prospect of a Watergate crisis, this time for the British government.
AMR/HE
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