The wife of Downing Street’s former chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, has lifted the lid on the private fury felt by Tony Blair’s inner circle over the cash-for-peerages inquiry, accusing the police of ‘Gestapo tactics’.

In a remarkable intervention, which contrasts with the measured language of the former Prime Minister, Sarah Helm singled out a dawn raid on the former Number 10 aide Ruth Turner as a sign of police heavy-handedness.

Helm, a journalist and author, writes in today’s Observer: ‘I know one shouldn’t make these comparisons, but I was writing about Nazi Germany right then and I couldn’t help think: Gestapo tactics! Pick on the vulnerable, preferably a single woman, living alone. No matter that you may have nothing on her that will ultimately stand up in court – give her a scare.’

Chicken Yoghurt says it better then me. (Also)

The arrogance of this Government of those close to them is just disgusting.