Exclusive by political editor Paul Francis

The costs of investigating allegations made against Ashford MP Damian Green totalled £109,000.

That is the amount the Metropolitan Police has revealed it spent in the course of its investigations into the allegations against Mr Green and the civil servant Christopher Galley.

Mr Green said: "It is clear that this was a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money and a waste of police time. These figures show just what a huge and unnecessary diversion of police resources were involved in an investigation that should never have started and was an unwarranted intrusion into my life and the lives of my family."

The sum includes more than £66,000 on police overtime and nearly £35,000 paid for legal costs, covering advice sought by the police in the course of their inquiries.

The initial raid on Mr Green’s London home involved nine counter-terrorism police searching through the house while a similar number were deployed to his Kent home and constituency offices.

A further £6,000 was spent on what was described as forensic submissions, thought to be partly associated with examination of computers and his mobile phones, which were taken away from Mr Green’s homes and constituency office in Bethersden.

The Met Police bill of £109,401 was completed with £2,476 identified as expenses.

Mr Green was arrested on suspicion of an obscure offence of ‘conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office’ - something which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

The move triggered one of the biggest rows in Westminster last year and at the time, led to calls for the Speaker of the House of Commons to resign for his role in allowing Mr Green’s Westminster office to be searched.

The MP always denied any wrong-doing and in April, the Crown Prosecution Service said it would not be bringing any charges against either him or Mr Galley.

The Met Police said it did not want to comment.