British Government ministers have been urged to investigate claims that an undercover police officer who had infiltrated a group of animal rights extremists planted a firebomb in a department store.
Green Party leader Caroline Lucas told MPs she had seen a witness statement alleging that Bob Lambert, who went under the alias of Bob Robinson, placed the device in a branch of Debenhams.
The device was one of three left by activists with the Animal Liberation Front to protest at its decision to sell fur products.
ALF members Geoff Sheppard and Andrew Clarke were jailed for planting firebombs in stores in Luton and Romford in 1987, but the third activist involved in the attacks was never caught. Speaking under parliamentary privilege, Lucas said Sheppard now alleged Lambert had been responsible.
Lucas, the MP for Brighton Pavilion, said: "It would seem that planting the third incendiary device was perhaps a move designed to ... reinforce the impression of a genuine and dedicated activist. [Lambert] did go on to successfully gain the precise intelligence that led to the arrest of Sheppard and Clarke and without anybody suspecting the tip-off came from him. But is this really the way we want our police officers to behave?" Lambert denied the claims.