'Plebgate' row: Timeline - BBC News BBC News Close share panel Image copyright Dispatches/Channel 4 News Image caption The affair concerns a 45-second encounter between Andrew Mitchell and police officers at the gates of Downing Street Allegations that Conservative chief whip Andrew Mitchell called some police officers plebs during a row in Downing Street cost him his government job. But the scandal has since embroiled the police in accusations that they have not been sufficiently robust in disciplining officers accused of trying to discredit the MP as part of a campaign to "toxify" his party. BBC News looks back at how the row unfolded. 19 September 2012 Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell, then the government's chief whip, has a row with police officers who would not let him cycle through Downing Street's main gate. 20 September 2012 The story is revealed in the Sun newspaper, which reports that he swore at the officers and called them "plebs" who should learn their place. 21 September 2012 Mr Mitchell denies using the word "plebs" but apologises for being disrespectful.

24 September 2012 Mr Mitchell says he wants to "draw a line" under the incident, telling reporters: "I did not use the words that have been attributed to me." But speculation about the exact words he did use continues. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg urges him to explain "fully and in detail his version of events". 25 September 2012 A police log of the incident, appearing to confirm previous reports and contradict Mr Mitchell's position, is leaked to the Daily Telegraph. 7 October 2012 Image copyright West Midlands Police Federation Image caption Police representatives associated the row with their campaign against cuts Mr Mitchell remains in his job, but members of the Police Federation wear "PC Pleb" T-shirts at demonstrations against police funding cuts at the Conservative Party conference. 12 October 2012 Three local representatives of the Police Federation meet Mr Mitchell at his Sutton Coldfield constituency office for 45 minutes, telling reporters afterwards that he had still not disclosed the precise words he used in the incident. They criticise him for implying that the Downing Street officers' accounts are not accurate. The chief whip has "no option but to resign", one representative concludes.

17 October 2012 Image caption In a Commons clash, David Cameron said Mr Mitchell should be able to carry on with his job David Cameron tells Parliament that what Mr Mitchell "did and said" was wrong, but since he had apologised and the officer involved had accepted his apology, he should be allowed to get on with his job. But opposition leader Ed Miliband says that, despite the apology, Mr Mitchell is "toast". 19 October 2012 Mr Mitchell resigns, claiming the "damaging publicity" means he can no longer do his job. In his resignation letter to the PM, he writes: "The offending comment and the reason for my apology to the police was my parting remark 'I thought you guys were supposed to f***ing help us.' "It was obviously wrong of me to use such bad language and I am very sorry about it and grateful to the police officer for accepting my apology." 16 December 2012 A police constable with the diplomatic protection group is arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public office, and suspended from his duties in connection with accounts of the Downing Street incident.

18 December 2012 CCTV footage, broadcast on Channel 4 news, casts doubt on the police officers' version of events. The police log said Mr Mitchell's use of a number of expletives had left members of the public looking on "visibly shocked". But the footage suggests that no-one other than the officers involved were within earshot. Mr Mitchell says he has fallen victim to a "stitch-up". 19 December 2012 Scotland Yard says it is opening an investigation into claims that an officer gave false evidence. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe says: "The allegations in relation to this case are extremely serious. For the avoidance of doubt, I am determined there will be a ruthless search for the truth - no matter where the truth takes us." In the ensuing months, eight people are arrested and bailed under the investigation, codenamed Operation Alice, including five police officers. 7 March 2013 Mr Mitchell launches libel action against the Sun over its reporting of the "plebgate" incident. 19 September 2013 A year after the original incident, former home secretary Jack Straw criticises the "inordinate and unjustified" length of time the investigation has taken.

15 October 2013 Independent Police Complaints Commission deputy chair Deborah Glass says the IPCC disagrees with police chiefs' decision not to hold misconduct hearings on the three Federation officers involved in the October 2012 meeting with Mr Mitchell. Image caption Mr Mitchell has always denied calling the officers "plebs" The IPCC releases a transcript of the meeting - from a recording made by Mr Mitchell - which shows that, while he admitted swearing, Mr Mitchell denied using the word "pleb" or insulting the police. However, after the meeting the three officers said he had refused to elaborate on what had happened and should resign. Home Secretary Theresa May says it would be "quite wrong" to take no action against those officers. The chief constables of their forces say they will welcome the opportunity to appear before the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee to explain why no action was taken against them. 16 October 2013 David Cameron says Mr Mitchell is "owed an apology" by police over the row. It also emerges that an internal report which ultimately found no misconduct case to answer by the three officers who met Mr Mitchell at his constituency office had initially proposed disciplinary action.

21 October 2013 The three officers, Ken MacKaill, Stuart Hinton and Chris Jones, apologise for their "poor judgement" in talking to the media following their meeting with Mr Mitchell. They say they did not "plan or intend to mislead anyone about what occurred". But friends of Mr Mitchell tell the BBC the statement is "a regrettable non-apology". 23 October 2013 The three Federation officers insist to the Home Affairs Select Committee that they do not owe Mr Mitchell an apology. They say they stand by their "accurate" account of the meeting and Mr Jones says he is "not convinced we have done anything wrong". But the head of West Mercia Police tells the committee the handling of the affair was "clumsy" and the internal report and its recommendations should be independently reviewed. 27 October 2013 Sir Hugh Orde, head of the Association of Chief Police Officers, says the conduct of the three officers fell "below that required" and they should apologise. 31 October 2013 Three civilians and five police officers on bail over the plebgate affair are re-bailed to a date in late November.

3 November 2013 The IPCC says it is conducting its own investigation into the conduct of the three Federation officers - Ken MacKaill, Stuart Hinton, and Chris Jones - saying there were "procedural irregularities" in the earlier internal police probe. It also emerges that the trio will be called back before the Home Affairs Select Committee. Its chairman, Labour's Keith Vaz, says MPs were "appalled" by the officers' original evidence and that if they did not "correct the record" they would be in contempt of Parliament. 6 November 2013 Stuart Hinton apologises to the the home affairs committee for an "inadvertent error" in his earlier evidence. He also says he regrets the "distress" felt by Mr Mitchell and his family during the whole saga. Chris Jones, also appearing before the committee, insists he did not mislead MPs over his disciplinary record. 26 November 2013 PC Keith Wallis is charged with misconduct in a public office, accused of falsely claiming to have witnessed the incident in an email to his MP. But prosecutors say there is insufficient evidence to show an officer in Downing Street lied in his account of what happened.

Separately, the Independent Police Complaints Commission says five members of the Metropolitan Police's Diplomatic Protection Group will face gross misconduct proceedings linked to the subsequent row, meaning they could lose their jobs. The BBC understands that the officer at the Downing Street gates on the night of the incident is not one of the five. 4 December 2013 PC Toby Rowland, the police officer who was on duty at Downing Street, says he is going to sue Mr Mitchell for libel over comments he made to the media following the incident. 16 December 2013 PC Keith Wallis appears at Westminster Magistrates' Court charged with misconduct in a public office, accused of falsely claiming to have witnessed the incident. He did not enter a plea. 10 January 2014 PC Keith Wallis admits misconduct. 5 February 2014 Metropolitan Police chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe meets Mr Mitchell to apologise for PC Keith Wallis's role in the affair. 6 February 2014 PC Keith Wallis is sentenced to 12 months in prison.

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Sweeney said Wallis had been guilty of "sustained, and in significant measure, devious misconduct which fell far below the standards expected of a police officer". 26 February 2014 PCs Keith Wallis and James Glanville are sacked for gross misconduct. The Met said Mr Glanville was dismissed for passing information about the incident to the Sun newspaper. 27 April 2014 Image copyright PA It emerges that PC Toby Rowland is seeking up to £200,000 in damages from Mr Mitchell for suggesting he was not telling the truth about the September 2012 altercation by the Downing Street gates. In documents submitted to the High Court, lawyers for PC Rowland justify the claim on the grounds that his reputation has been damaged by Mr Mitchell's remarks and he suffered "great distress, humiliation and upset". 30 April 2014 PC Gillian Weatherley is dismissed for gross misconduct by the Metropolitan Police over leaks to the press about the "plebgate" affair. 21 May 2014 PC Susan Johnson, a Metropolitan Police officer serving with the diplomatic protection group, is sacked for gross misconduct over the press leaks.

6 October 2014 A High Court ruling finds there was no proper final report prepared for the investigation into the three Police Federation officers who met Mr Mitchell. That probe was conducted by West Mercia Police but supervised by the IPCC. The High Court also quashed the IPCC's decision to investigate the case itself. An IPCC spokesman said it "welcomed" the ruling that the decisions of the three police forces had been "invalid" and said it would make a "fresh assessment" of the case. 3 November 2014 The IPCC again says it is to investigate three Police Federation officers over the "plebgate" affair, having re-assessed the case. 17 November 2014 The libel trial involving Mr Mitchell and former PC Toby Rowland gets under way in the High Court in London. Lawyers for Mr Mitchell tell the court that the police spun a "web of lies" that led to a "vitriolic" campaign against their client. 19 November 2014 Musician and aid campaigner Sir Bob Geldof is cited as a character witness for Mr Mitchell, a former international development secretary.

In a written statement submitted to the court, Sir Bob describes Mr Mitchell as a "good man" and "an advocate for the less fortunate", adding that he had never heard him "use the ridiculous and archaic expression 'pleb'". 20 November 2014 A former police officer who was on duty during the "plebgate" incident denies wishing to harm Mr Mitchell or the government. Gillian Weatherley, who was sacked over leaks of alleged details of the row, tells the court that text messages she sent suggesting she could "topple the Tory government" were meant to be sarcastic. 24 November 2014 A police officer who accompanied Mr Mitchell on two foreign trips says the former cabinet minister was "unpleasant until he got what he wanted". Insp Duncan Johnston, who travelled with the then international development secretary in 2011, tells the court Mr Mitchell would "erupt" but later be charming. Separately, two former Conservative whips state in written evidence that Mr Mitchell had been unable to recall the exact words he had used in the days and weeks after the event. 27 November 2014 Former government chief whip Andrew Mitchell loses his High Court libel action.

Mr Mitchell had sued News Group Newspapers over the story in the Sun in 2012 which claimed he called PC Toby Rowland a "pleb". Mr Mitchell acknowledged that he had used bad language but maintained he had not used that word. Delivering his ruling, Mr Justice Mitting said he was satisfied that the MP did say the word "pleb" 'Plebgate' affair: Met PC admits misconduct - BBC News BBC News 'Plebgate' affair: Met PC admits misconduct 10 January 2014 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption PC Wallis was not present during the "plebgate" incident in September 2012 A Met policeman has admitted misconduct in public office over the "plebgate" affair and is to offer to resign. PC Keith Wallis, 53, admitted falsely claiming to have witnessed a row between then-cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell and police in September 2012. He has been bailed for sentencing on 6 February pending psychiatric reports. Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe apologised to Mr Mitchell, who said he was pleased "justice had been done" but that unanswered questions remained.

Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the guilty plea but said it was "completely unacceptable for a serving police officer to falsify an account of any incident". Analysis By Dominic CascianiHome affairs correspondent, BBC News Plebgate has gone on so long that Andrew Mitchell could have cycled around the world and back to Downing Street in the time it has taken to get to the bottom of what happened. And the longer it has gone on, the more it has damaged public confidence in the police, as the Met's commissioner has conceded today. More than half a dozen other Met officers face some form of disciplinary action or rap over the knuckles for their conduct. Three more officers from other forces are also being investigated by the police watchdog. None of them is PC Toby Rowland, the man at the heart of the incident at No 10's gate. He faces no disciplinary or criminal action and stands by his account. What's more, he is suing the MP for libel. Meanwhile, Mr Mitchell says he is suing the Sun newspaper. This is by no means over. "Andrew Mitchell has consistently denied the version of events presented," he added.

'Clearly lied' What came to be labelled by the media as "plebgate" occurred when Mr Mitchell was stopped from cycling through Downing Street's main gates by another police officer, Toby Rowland. Mr Mitchell has admitted swearing during the incident but has denied claims that he swore directly at police or used the word "pleb". In the aftermath, PC Wallis sent an email to his local MP John Randall, then-Conservative deputy chief whip, wrongly stating he had witnessed the row. At the Old Bailey on Friday, PC Wallis spoke only to confirm his name and that he understood the charges before he pleaded guilty. The court was told the diplomatic protection group officer had admitted his guilt in a police interview before pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity. In a statement, Sir Bernard said the evidence against the officer had led to his guilty plea. Media captionCCTV of Andrew Mitchell at Downing Street gate with bike PC Wallis's actions had damaged public trust and confidence in the police and in the integrity of his officers, Sir Bernard added. "I would also like to apologise to Mr Mitchell that an MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] officer clearly lied about seeing him behaving in a certain manner," the commissioner said.

"I will be writing to him offering to meet and apologise in person. "I expect my officers to serve the public without fear or favour, where officers break the law they must expect to be held to account and answer for what they have done." PC Wallis's lawyer said he would offer his resignation from the Met later on Friday. Further misconduct charges Media captionSir Richard Ottaway MP and friend of Mr Mitchell: "It brings the whole Met into disrepute" Mr Mitchell - Conservative MP for Sutton Coldfield - said in a statement: "I am pleased that justice has been done in a criminal court today. "It is very sad and worrying for all of us that a serving police officer should have behaved in this way. "There remain many questions unanswered, in particular why PC Wallis wrote this email and who else was involved in this process." He added that he was "looking forward to seeing justice done" in the other outstanding related disciplinary cases. Mr Mitchell is being sued for libel by PC Rowland over comments he made following the incident.

Image copyright PA Image caption Mr Mitchell wanted to cycle out of the Downing Street gates when he clashed with police Four other officers are facing gross misconduct hearings later this year relating to the "improper disclosure of information", the Met said in a statement. The story so far... 19 September 2012 Andrew Mitchell and police row after he tries to cycle through Downing Street's main gate 20 September 2012 The Sun reports Mr Mitchell swore at officers and called them "plebs" who should learn their place 21 September 2012 Mr Mitchell denies using the word "plebs" but apologises for being disrespectful 19 October 2012 Mr Mitchell resigns as chief whip after weeks of damaging publicity 18 December 2012 CCTV footage, broadcast on Channel 4 News, casts doubt on the police officers' version of events 19 December 2012 Scotland Yard launches an investigation into claims an officer gave false evidence.

In the ensuing months eight people are arrested 26 November 2013 PC Wallis is charged with misconduct in public office while, separately, five others from the Met face disciplinary action 4 December 2013 The police officer who had been on duty at the Downing St gates, PC Toby Rowland, says he will sue Mr Mitchell over his comments in the wake of the incident 10 January 2014 PC Wallis admits misconduct and says he will offer his resignation It added: "Another two officers will be subject to local misconduct in relation to providing inaccurate statements or inappropriate comments and a seventh officer has been recommended for management action in relation to inappropriate comments. "These processes are currently under way." Adjourning PC Wallis's case until February, Mr Justice Sweeney said all sentencing options remained open. The officer remains suspended and - while his lawyer says he will offer his resignation - it is understood that he would need permission from his superiors to do so.

Steve Williams, chairman of the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file police officers in England and Wales, said: "Despite the high-profile nature of the case and the officer's regrettable actions, one officer admitting one offence should not be allowed to undermine public confidence in the police service." The "vast majority" of officers conducted themselves "with the utmost integrity and professionalism at all times, often risking their own safety in the interests of the general public and the communities they serve," he added. Elsewhere, Keith Vaz, who chairs the Home Affairs Select Committee, said the guilty plea appeared to be "a complete vindication" of Mr Mitchell. "Now is the time to turn the page on this whole unfortunate incident, which took only 45 seconds but has cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds, Mr Mitchell his job and damaged the reputation of the police," he said. For Labour, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said policing reform was needed.

Police accused of lying over MP Andrew Mitchell 'plebgate' affair Police accused of lying over MP Andrew Mitchell 'plebgate' affair Pin it Share Former chief whip Andrew Mitchell is suing News Group Newspapers over the so-called "plebgate" report (AFP Photo/Dan Kitwood) More London (AFP) - Police officers spun a "web of lies, deceit and indiscipline" that led to a vitriolic press campaign against former chief whip Andrew Mitchell, a court heard on Monday. Mitchell is suing News Group Newspapers (NGN) for libel after The Sun reported that he had shouted abuse at police when blocked from leaving Downing Street on his bicycle in 2012. Mitchell admits swearing, but denies losing his temper and calling the officers "plebs" and "morons". His lawyer James Price said the paper's account of the incident was "wholly false" and the words ascribed to him were a "gross caricature of an attitude of mind which has been out of date for decades".

"This web of lies, deceit and indiscipline, and by police officers, led to Mr Mitchell and his family being subjected to an extremely unpleasant, indeed vitriolic, press campaign and a good deal of hostility from the public who believed what they had read in the press," he told High Court judge John Mitting, who is hearing the case without a jury. "It also placed him in a position where he required considerable determination and, above all, confidence in the rightness of his position, to stand by his account of events." In his witness statement to the court, Mitchell admitted "sometimes using bad language" but said: "To the best of my recollection, I have never called anybody a 'pleb'... let alone a policeman." "It just isn't a word I use," he added. NGN argues that the article was substantially true, with its case centred on an account given by PC Toby Rowland, a diplomatic protection officer who was guarding the main Downing Street gate when the confrontation occurred. Rowland issued Mitchell with a verbal warning, saying he would be arrested if it happened again. In a separate case, the officer is suing Mitchell over statements he made to the media.

The case could determine the political future of the Conservative MP for Sutton Coldfield, who resigned as whip a month after the incident. Reblog Mitchell resigns over ‘plebgate’ – Channel 4 News Politics , UK Mitchell resigns over ‘plebgate’ Government Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell submits to police pressure and resigns, after admitting he swore during a confrontation with police officers at Downing Street. Share on Twitter The resignation comes after a row involving Mr Mitchell swearing at police dragged on for weeks, with the beleagured MP failing to draw a line under the scandal that emerged after he allegedly swore at police. In his resignation letter Mr Mitchell again claimed he had not called a police officer a “pleb” or “moron” or “any of the other pejorative descriptions attributed to me”. He went on to admit it was wrong to use bad language to the police and thank the prime minister for the opportunities provided to him. Mr Mitchell claimed he said “I thought you guys were supposed to f****** help us”.

Prime Minister Cameron wrote in a letter accepting the resignation “I understand why you have reached the conclusion you have.” “As you have acknowledged, the incident in Downing Street was not acceptable and you were right to apologise for it.” Sir George Young will now take over as chief whip, Downing Street has confirmed. The Police Federation and Labour were among those calling for the minister to go as pressure intensified on him. There were also heated clashes in parliament on Wednesday. Police Federation chairman Paul McKeever said: “It is not good to see anyone fall from public office but the decision by the prime minister to accept Andrew Mitchell’s resignation seemed almost inevitable. “Andrew Mitchell has apologised to our Metropolitan Police colleague and our colleague has accepted the apology. We hope this matter is now closed.” The incident in September allegedly saw Mr Mitchell swear at police officers stationed at Downing Street, after they stopped him leaving through the main entrance gate with his bicycle. Paul McKeever, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said Mr Mitchell’s resignation “seemed almost inevitable”. Labour said Mr Mitchell should have gone earlier and questioned the Prime Minister’s judgment in allowing him to remain place.

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Michael Dugher said: “What people will want to know is why, when the entire country could see that what Andrew Mitchell did was wrong, the Prime Minister totally failed to act. “David Cameron is left looking profoundly weak and totally out of touch, doing everything he could to hold on to Andrew Mitchell only for his chief whip to bow to the inevitable, given the understandable public anger.” Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “This is a sensible decision by Andrew Mitchell. It is very unfortunate that David Cameron allowed this to drag on so long rather than investigate and resolve it at the start. “Letting it carry on like this sent a very bad signal to the police and public servants across the country about the government’s attitude.” Met Police Officer Sacked Over Plebgate Affair Weather Met Police Officer Sacked Over Plebgate Affair The police officer was involved in leaking information about the Plebgate affair to a newspaper an investigation found. 12:17, UK, Wednesday 21 May 2014 Image Caption: Andrew Mitchell resigned over the Plebgate affair Mail Police officer Susan Johnson has been sacked from the Met Police for gross misconduct because of her role in the Plebgate affair.

The officer, who serves on the diplomatic protection squad, was dismissed following a misconduct hearing which found she had "breached standards of professional behaviour". The investigation into the altercation between the former Conservative Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell and a police officer at the gates of Downing Street found Pc Johnson had been involved in the leaking of information about the incident to The Sun newspaper. Pc Johnson, who was not on duty at the time of the argument over cycling along Downing Street, was found to have been exchanging text messages and a phone call with someone who had then contacted the newspaper. Image Caption: Andrew Mitchell at the gates of Downing Street Mr Mitchell resigned after details of his altercation with Pc Toby Rowland on September 19, 2012 emerged in which he was accused of using the phrase "f***ing pleb", a claim he has always denied. The Conservative MP has always claimed the Police Federation used the incident to take revenge for police cuts and had orchestrated a "stitch-up". Deborah Glass, of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, said earlier this year: "The patchwork of evidence from emails, text messages and telephone calls does not suggest an organised conspiracy to bring down a cabinet minister.

"But there was clearly collusion between certain officers to, as they saw it, blow the whistle on bad behaviour toward one of their own, which ultimately had the same effect." Image Caption: Pc Keith Wallis was jailed for lying about the Plebgate affair Andrew Mitchell statement on his plebgate 'scandal' (24Sept12) - YouTube Andrew Mitchell statement on his plebgate 'scandal' (24Sept12) Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Sep 24, 2012 Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell gives a live statement on the supposed scandal of "plebgate" and allegedly swearing at police. Considering the economic destruction of the UK economy and other issues, this is a total non-story whipped up - distraction politics. Recorded from BBC Breakfast, 24 September 2012.

Category Rt Hon David Davis MP » David Davis discusses Plebgate affair across the Newspapers David Davis discusses Plebgate affair across the Newspapers As published in the Daily Mail: Plebgate police say sorry… but not to Mitchell Three police officers were last night accused of using weasel words’ after they denied lying to help bring down former Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell. Inspector Ken MacKaill, Detective Sergeant Stuart Hinton and Sergeant Chris Jones yesterday issued a partial apology for their conduct following a meeting with Mr Mitchell at the height of the Plebgate’ row last year. But they pointedly did not apologise to the former Government chief whip himself. Friends of Mr Mitchell said their statement did not go far enough and called for them to face disciplinary proceedings. Former shadow home secretary David Davis said: After bringing down a Cabinet minister, a half-apology won’t do. These people are guilty of a serious misconduct.’ Mr Mitchell admits losing his temper and swearing after police guarding the gates of Downing Street stopped him riding his bicycle through the gates on a September evening last year. But he has always denied using the toxic word plebs’, as claimed in a police log’ leaked to the media.

A secret recording made by Mr Mitchell of the meeting with the three officers in his Sutton Coldfield constituency last October reveals them apparently accepting his account of the incident. But just minutes later the three, all senior members of the Police Federation, told reporters that he had failed to explain what had happened and called for him to resign. The three men were controversially cleared of misconduct last week following an internal investigation by West Mercia Police. But, in an extraordinary intervention, the Independent Police Complaints Commission said the investigation was wrong to clear them. In a statement yesterday the three officers apologised for talking to the media, but denied lying. The reputation of, and public confidence in, the police service is of immense concern to each of us,’ they said. We acknowledge the investigation’s criticism relating to our poor judgment in talking to the media following the meeting with Andrew Mitchell, for which we take this opportunity to apologise. We would like to emphasise that in no way did any of us ever plan or intend to mislead anyone about what occurred during this meeting or otherwise.’ But friends of Mr Mitchell dismissed the statement. Mr Davis said: The transcript of the meeting shows that the federation deployed a premeditated line of attack against Mr Mitchell.

This is not a case of misjudgment, it is deliberate misconduct and they should face the consequences of that misconduct.’ Fellow Tory MP Dominic Raab said: These weasel words are no substitute for proper accountability of sworn officers for what the IPCC deemed a deliberate lie intended to bring down an elected Cabinet minister in pursuit of a political agenda.’ Tomorrow, the chief constables of the West Mercia, West Midlands and Warwickshire forces, which employ the three officers, will be grilled by MPs on the Commons home affairs committee. David Shaw, chief constable of the West Mercia force, will be pressed on revelations from the IPCC that the internal inquiry’s conclusions were changed at the eleventh hour to clear the three. As published in The Guardian: Police officers sorry for ‘poor judgment’ over Andrew Mitchell meeting Three Police Federation officers acknowledge IPCC criticism of their handling of meeting with then chief whip about pleb row. Three police officers involved in the Plebgate saga have issued a limited apology, saying they showed “poor judgment in talking to the media” after a meeting with Andrew Mitchell as he battled for his political life.

Mitchell resigned from his cabinet post as chief whip, but while he fought to stay in office last year he met three Police Federation representatives who later told the media he had failed to detail what happened during his Downing Street clash with police. Last week the IPCC said a recording Mitchell made of the meeting proved he had in fact been candid with the officers and admitted swearing at PCs who stopped him pushing his bike through the Downing Street gates, but denied using the word pleb. The three officers were accused of trying to damage Mitchell by giving a misleading account, and police were criticised after it was decided that none of the officers should face disciplinary action. The IPCC said there were issues of “honesty and integrity” over the media statements, with police accused of trying to discredit Mitchell as part of their campaign against government cuts to police funding and reductions in the wages and conditions of some officers.

On Monday the Police Federation issued a statement on behalf of the three officers – Inspector Ken MacKaill of West Mercia police, Detective Sergeant Stuart Hinton of Warwickshire police and Sergeant Chris Jones of West Midlands police, in which they said: “We acknowledge the investigation’s criticism relating to our poor judgment in talking to the media following the meeting with Andrew Mitchell, for which we take this opportunity to apologise. “We would like to emphasise (as we did to the investigation) that in no way did any of us ever plan or intend to mislead anyone about what occurred during this meeting or otherwise.” Last week the IPCC said it disagreed with a decision made by the officers’ forces that there was no case to answer for misconduct or gross misconduct. Mitchell was forced to resign as chief whip in October 2012 after an official police log claimed he had described officers as “fucking plebs” when they declined to allow him to wheel his bike through the Downing Street security gates. Accounts from the police were leaked to two newspapers. But then CCTV emerged that appeared to contradict key claims in the police accounts. Mitchell denied calling them plebs.

This month prosecutors said they had received all the evidence they need to assess whether Metropolitan police officers allegedly involved in the original meeting and leaking the logs to media outlets should face charges. The Tory MP David Davis said on Monday: “The statement from the three police Federation officials is simply not good enough. Their actions have destroyed a career. The transcript of the meeting which took place in Sutton Coldfield shows that the federation deployed a premeditated line of attack against Mr Mitchell. “This is not a case of misjudgment, it is deliberate misconduct and they should face the consequences of that misconduct.” As published in The Daily Telegraph: Apology by Plebgate officers ‘does not go far enough’ Supporters of Andrew Mitchell last night rejected a partial apology by three police officers at the centre of the plebgate row who had issued a statement admitting they had shown “poor judgment”. Insp Ken MacKaill, Det Sgt Stuart Hinton and Sgt Chris Jones, of the Police Federation, were accused of misrepresenting the former chief whip after a meeting in his constituency last October at which he set out his side of the Downing Street row. An investigation by the West Mercia force into the affair concluded that the men should face no further action.

But a damning report published by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) last week concluded that there were issues of “honesty and integrity”. It recommended they face disciplinary proceedings. Last night, two days before their chief constables are due before the Commons home affairs committee to answer questions about the matter, the three issued a partial apology. In a joint statement they said: “The reputation of, and public confidence in, the police service is of immense concern to each of us. “We acknowledge the investigation’s criticism relating to our poor judgment in talking to the media following the meeting with Andrew Mitchell, for which we take this opportunity to apologise. “We would like to emphasise – as we did to the investigation – that in no way did any of us ever plan or intend to mislead anyone about what occurred during this meeting or otherwise.” But supporters of Mr Mitchell said the apology did not go far enough. David Davis, the Tory MP, who has backed his colleague throughout the scandal, said: “The statement from the three Police Federation officials is not good enough. Their actions have destroyed a career. “The transcript of the meeting which took place in Sutton Coldfield shows that the federation deployed a premeditated line of attack against Mr Mitchell.

“This is not a case of misjudgment, it is deliberate misconduct and they should face the consequences of that misconduct.” Mr Mitchell agreed to meet Police Federation representatives from his local area after the “plebgate” affair in which he was accused of branding members of Downing Street’s diplomatic protection group “plebs” and “morons”. It was alleged he responded angrily after the officers refused to open the main gates in Downing Street to allow him to cycle through. While admitting swearing, Mr Mitchell denied using the word plebs. In a meeting with the three federation representatives last October Mr Mitchell explained what he claimed he had said and again apologised. But when the men left the meeting they claimed Mr Mitchell refused to provide an account of the argument. An investigation was opened when Mr Mitchell provided a tape of the conversation. Last week David Cameron and Theresa May, the Home Secretary, said they believed Mr Mitchell was owed an apology. The Crown Prosecution Service is considering whether to bring criminal charges against eight people arrested after the scandal as part of Scotland Yard’s investigation, known as Operation Alice. As published in The Guardian: Theresa May rebukes police over reaction to Plebgate Home secretary calls on chief constable to apologise to Andrew Mitchell and challenges decision not to discipline officers.

The plebgate affair escalated on Tuesday when Theresa May challenged a chief constable’s decision not to take disciplinary action against police who allegedly gave misleading accounts of a meeting with Andrew Mitchell last year. In a boost to the former chief whip, who is fighting claims that he called police officers who were guarding Downing Street “fucking plebs”, the home secretary called on West Mercia’s chief constable to apologise to Mitchell, saying that the conduct of officers at the meeting struck at the issue of trust in the service. May made the comments after the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) challenged a police account of a meeting between Mitchell and the Police Federation in his Sutton Coldfield constituency on 12 October 2012. Representatives of West Mercia, West Midlands and Warwickshire police met Mitchell after the federation told him it wanted to “clear the air” after the confrontation when police declined to allow him to wheel his bike through Downing Street’s gates on 19 September 2012. Mitchell admitted in the meeting, dubbed by one friend “Kafkaesque” and a “brutal” display of police power, of having sworn in the presence of the officers but insisted he did not call them plebs.

Ken MacKaill, the main spokesman for the three officers, who did not speak during the meeting, asked Mitchell to resign after the talks. Mackaill said: “He is continuing to refuse to elaborate on what happened. I think his position is untenable.” But the IPCC said that a record of the meeting by Mitchell showed that he had used it to outline his central defence – that he had sworn in the presence of the officers but insisted that he had not used the word pleb. In the report Deborah Glass, deputy chair of the IPCC, said of the officers at the Sutton Coldfield meeting: “Their motive seems plain: as the West Mercia investigating officer noted, ‘they were running a successful, high-profile, anti-cuts media campaign and the account that he provided to them did not fit with their agenda’.” The remarks prompted the home secretary to issue a rare rebuke after the chief constable of West Mercia, David Shaw, concluded that there was no reason to discipline the police. Appearing at the Commons home affairs select committee, May said: “The police need the trust of the public. These sorts of incident will strike at the heart of that issue of trust.

For many members of the public, they will actually say, well, here was somebody who was a member of parliament, who had been a Cabinet minister, and yet this has happened for that individual, and what chance is there for a member of the public?” Asked if the chief constable of West Mercia, the force that ran the investigation into the officers, should apologise to Mitchell, she said: “I think that would be appropriate.” May added that it was “quite wrong” that the three officers were not to face disciplinary hearings. “If it is indeed the case that warranted police officers behaved in the way Deborah Glass has described, that’s not acceptable at all.”Keith Vaz, chairman of the select committee, announced that he would summon Shaw, the Police Federation chairman, Steve Williams, and Glass. Glass had directly challenged the West Mercia chief constable when she wrote: “I disagree with the conclusions of the investigating officer and the opinion of the appropriate authorities that there is no case to answer. In my view, the evidence is such that a panel should determine whether the three officers gave a false account of the meeting in a deliberate attempt to support their MPS colleague and discredit Mr Mitchell, in pursuit of a wider agenda.

“In my opinion the evidence and the surrounding circumstances do give an indication of an issue of honesty and integrity and/or discreditable conduct, not merely naïve or poor professional judgment.” Mitchell, who has been waiting more than a year for the outcome of the investigations into police officers over claims that they leaked information and conspired against him, said: “It is a matter of deep concern that the police forces employing these officers have concluded that their conduct has not brought the police service into disrepute. Most people will disagree. “It is a decision which will undermine confidence in the ability of the police to investigate misconduct when the reputation of the police service as a whole is at stake. “My family and I have waited nearly a year for these police officers to be held to account and for an apology from the police forces involved. It seems we have waited in vain.” The Police Federation accused the IPCC of acting as judge and jury, prompting David Davis, the former shadow home secretary who is Mitchell’s closest ally, to say: “The police seem not to understand that is the law.

Obeying the law and enforcing the law happens to be their job.” A joint statement from the chief constables of Warwickshire, West Mercia and West Midlands forces said: “Andrew Mitchell MP has never made a complaint to police. West Mercia, with the support of West Midlands and Warwickshire police, recognising the public interest in this case, independently decided to investigate this incident and made a referral to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.” The skirmish was the opening act to the decision by the Crown Prosecution Service on eight individuals – including five police officers – accused of leaking to the media, misconduct and being part of a conspiracy to discredit Mitchell. One friend of Mitchell accused the police of having acted in a heavy-handed way in the disputed meeting. The transcript shows that Mitchell repeated his apology to the officer in Downing Street, admitted that he swore but then insisted that he had not used the word pleb.The officers at the meeting repeatedly asked him whether he was calling the officer on duty a liar after a report of the duty officer’s notes of the encounter alleged that Mitchell had called him a “fucking pleb”. Mitchell declined to call the officer a liar.

This prompted the Warwickshire officer to say that he was required under his code of conduct to report the officer for issuing a false statement. In her report Glass said: “Despite their apparent enthusiasm during the meeting for reporting their MPS colleague for lying, in fact none of the officers do so, but immediately tell the waiting media, in effect, that it is Mr Mitchell’s integrity which is in question.” A friend of Mitchell said: “The meeting was Kafkaesque. It was utterly brutal.” Davis told the Guardian: “What they said outside the meeting did not reflect what happened inside the meeting. At its mildest they misled the public. You have this issue of a pre-meditated lie. “The people we are talking about here can arrest you, lock you up, charge you and give evidence against you in court. That is what they do as their profession.

So for them to have a pre-meditated deception seems to me to be not just a misconduct but misconduct that is very material to their ability to do their jobs.” As published in The Independent: IPPC questions ‘honesty and integrity’ of police officers who met the former Tory chief whip Andrew Mitchell over ‘Plebgate’ affair; Watchdog says that there should be a panel to determine whether three police officers gave a false account of meeting. A misconduct panel should decide if three police officers gave a false account of a meeting with former Tory chief whip Andrew Mitchell to discredit him, the police watchdog has said. But the deputy chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), Deborah Glass, said that as Mr Mitchell has chosen not to make a formal complaint, she is powerless to direct misconduct proceedings. Her findings are in direct conflict with the result of an investigation by West Mercia Police that concluded the Police Federation representatives from West Mercia, West Midlands and Warwickshire forces had no case to answer for misconduct or gross misconduct. The three officers were accused of deliberately misrepresenting what Mr Mitchell said during a meeting in his Sutton Coldfield constituency office on October 12 last year when they gave interviews immediately afterwards.

Mr Mitchell said today he hopes there will be “considerable public concern” that three Police Federation representatives accused of trying to discredit him will face “no disciplinary consequences for their behaviour” after the police watchdog published its findings on the incident. Mr Mitchell met the Police Federation representatives after he was accused of calling officers guarding Downing Street “plebs” in a foul-mouthed rant as he was asked to cycle through the main gates on September 19 last year. The former Tory chief whip insisted he did not use the words attributed to him, and later said he was the victim of a deliberate attempt to “toxify” the Tories and ruin his career. Ms Glass said West Mercia Police found that although the Police Federation contributed to the pressure on Mr Mitchell and his decision to resign, none of the officers had a case to answer for misconduct or gross misconduct. She said: “The investigating officer concluded that while the federation representatives’ comments to the media could be viewed as ambiguous or misleading, there was no deliberate intention to lie. I disagree. “In my view, the evidence is such that a panel should determine whether the three officers gave a false account of the meeting in a deliberate attempt to support their Metropolitan Police colleague and discredit Mr Mitchell, in pursuit of a wider agenda.

“In my opinion, the evidence indicates an issue of honesty and integrity, not merely naive or poor professional judgment.” “In the media and political climate of the day, I do not consider that the officers could have been in any doubt about the impact of their public statements on the pressure being brought on Mr Mitchell. “As police officers, they had a responsibility to present a fair and accurate picture. Their motive seems plain: they were running a successful, high-profile, anti-cuts campaign and the account that he provided to them did not fit with their agenda.” Ms Glass said the federation representatives must have known Mr Mitchell was under pressure to resign his post as chief whip following scenes at the Conservative Party conference at which Federation members were seen wearing ‘PC Pleb’ T-shirts. She said: “It was clear that the parties had very different agendas for the meeting.

“Mr Mitchell saw it as an attempt to clear the air, while the officers focused on Mr Mitchell’s ‘version of events’ – that is what happened in the Downing Street incident on September 19 when Mr Mitchell was alleged to have called police officers ‘f****** plebs’.” Tory former shadow Home Secretary David Davis – a close ally of Mr Mitchell – said continued denials of misconduct were “astonishing” and raised serious questions about whether police forces should continue to be allowed to investigate their own officers. “These are officers who can arrest you and me, they can charge you and me, they can turn up in court and give evidence against you and me and yet, when they go in for a premeditated dishonest action like this, their own police force does not think that’s misconduct,” he told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One. “People will start to think: can we allow police forces to investigate their own misdemeanours in future because, frankly, they don’t appear to be able to understand when something a police officer does seriously undermines his ability to do his job.” The MP said he hoped the CPS would come to a decision “in the next week or two” about whether to bring criminal charges.

“The public at large, I think, feel that Andrew Mitchell has suffered a major injustice and I agree with them,” he said. As Published in The Guardian: Decision soon on charges in Plebgate case, Starmer says: CPS has all the details it needs, says prosecutor: Police source says former chief whip ‘stitched up’ Britain’s most senior prosecutor yesterday said he understood concerns about the time it has taken to investigate police officers over the Plebgate saga, which cost Andrew Mitchell his cabinet post. Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, confirmed that the Crown Prosecution Service now had all the information it needed and would decide whether officers would be charged as soon as possible. Mitchell was forced to resign as chief whip last year after officers said he called them “fucking plebs” after they refused to allow him to wheel his bike through the Downing Street main gate on 19 September 2012. He has always denied calling the police plebs. Friends of Mitchell have criticised the length of the investigation by the Metropolitan police’s directorate of professional standards, which took more than a year to complete. Eight people, including a Met police officer, have been arrested.

Starmer was challenged on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on the length of the investigation. “I understand why there is a concern about the delay,” he said, adding: “I’m not responsible for the length of the investigation. The file arrived with the CPS a week ago Friday, so I don’t think at the moment the CPS can be accused of delay. We have got people working on it and we will come to a proper decision just as soon as we can.” Starmer hinted that a decision would be made soon. “I don’t want to give predictions. We have got what we want, we are hard at it. And we will come to a decision as quickly as we can.” Starmer’s comments came after a police source claimed Mitchell was “stitched up” by the police. A senior officer quoted by the Sunday Times said evidence against Mitchell was doctored by officers annoyed at his insistence on wheeling his bike through the main gate a day before he is alleged to have verbally abused the police.

According to the newspaper, in a witness statement given to David Davis, the Tory MP and former shadow home secretary, the officer said: “On the 18 September 2012 Mitchell had also insisted on being let out through the main gate. Following this (officer X) said to the other officers: ‘Right, we can stitch him up.'” The whistleblower then reportedly went on to state that the word “plebs” was added by the named officer to the original police log of the conversation. The officer also claims that bogus emails were sent by one of the officers involved in the row with Mitchell in which he posed as a member of public who claimed to have overheard Mitchell use the phrase “fucking plebs”. Davis has written to Starmer demanding that the allegation be investigated. The Met said: “Many lines of inquiry have been investigated and the final file is now with the CPS, who are considering all the evidence.” In his BBC interview, Starmer also defended the Human Rights Act, following suggestions from Conservative ministers that it should be replaced.

As published in the Daily Mail: Force Altered report that cleared officers- watchdog A police force has been accused of an extraordinary 11th-hour cover-up over claims three senior officers lied to blacken the name of former Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell. In an explosive letter, watchdog Deborah Glass said an internal investigation by West Mercia Police was altered at the last minute to clear them of misconduct. On Tuesday, the Independent Police Complaints Commission suggested officers lied about what Mr Mitchell said in a private meeting about the Plebgate’ row. It said they wanted to heap pressure on him to resign over disputed claims he called Downing Street police officers plebs’ during an argument at the No10 gates. And it concluded that the trio – Inspector Ken MacKaill, Detective Sergeant Stuart Hinton and Sergeant Chris Jones – should have faced misconduct hearings. IPCC deputy chairman Miss Glass last night revealed that the first draft of an earlier West Mercia inquiry drew the same conclusion. But within a month, the force changed its mind. In a letter copied to the Home Secretary, Miss Glass said: We had no concerns about the quality of the investigation carried out by West Mercia Police. It was the conclusion we disagreed with.

In that regard, I note that in the first draft report submitted to the IPCC in July the senior investigating officer did in fact conclude there was a case to answer for misconduct. Although the final report in August, did not.’ It is not clear who ordered the report to be changed or why. West Mercia Police declined to comment last night. But one senior Tory said its Chief Constable David Shaw would have to consider his position’ if it emerged he had been involved in the decision. The Prime Minister told MPs yesterday that the conduct of the officers, who were representing the Police Federation, was not acceptable’ and backed calls for Mr Shaw to apologise to Mr Mitchell. Mr Cameron said it was only thanks to a recording of the meeting by Mr Mitchell that he was able to show that what the police officers said was untrue.’ Inspector MacKaill is from the West Mercia force, DS Hinton is from West Midlands and Sgt Jones is from Warwickshire. Mr Shaw, along with the chief constables of the West Midlands and Warwickshire forces, will be grilled by MPs over the issue next week. Tory MP Richard Ottaway said all three might have to resign if they were found to have been involved in a cover-up.

He said: [Mr Shaw] has to explain exactly what has happened. If it is apparent that he has been part of the change in the [report’s] conclusions then frankly I think he has got to consider his position. If [the other chief constables] were part of it as well then they are in the same position.’ The investigation by West Mercia concluded there were no grounds for a misconduct inquiry as there was no deliberate intention to lie’. But Miss Glass branded the investigation a whitewash, and warned the incident raised questions about the honesty and integrity’ of the three officers involved. Her intervention drew an angry response from the Police Federation and the three forces. West Midlands police and crime commissioner Bob Jones yesterday said her comments had been completely unjustified’ and very inappropriate’, and called for the abolition of the IPCC. The former shadow home secretary David Davis said: What the IPCC did here was trust the police, as the public do generally, and unfortunately what this demonstrates is that the police cannot be trusted, actually, to investigate themselves.

I’m afraid it is as plain as a pikestaff that what is happening here is the senior officers are trying to prevent their own forces from embarrassment… an attempt to stop embarrassment I’m afraid is a disgrace.’ The Crown Prosecution Service is now considering whether to bring criminal charges following a long-running police investigation into the original Plebgate’ incident in September last year. Mr Mitchell admits losing his temper and swearing after police stopped him riding his bicycle through the gates of Downing Street. But he has always denied using the word plebs’, as claimed in a police log’ which was leaked to the media. Eight people, including five police officers from the Diplomatic Protection Group, were arrested. As published in the London Evening Standard: Police ’embroidered truth in Plebgate to claim Tory scalp’ Former Home Secretary Jack Straw today claimed that police officers had “embroidered the truth” over the Plebgate affair in an attempt to “get the scalp of a Conservative cabinet minister”. Mr Straw attacked their behaviour as “completely inappropriate” and said it revealed a “poverty of leadership” at the Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers.

His attack came the day after Home Secretary Theresa May called for the officers to face disciplinary action over an alleged attempt to smear former Tory Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell. Senior Conservative MP David Davis said it was another case, along with Hilsborough and the death of Jean-Charles de Menezes, in which there were concerns over police “telling the truth”. Another Tory MP called for Mr Mitchell to be restored to the Cabinet saying he had been unjustly pushed out in the wake of Plebgate last year. Speaking on BBC radio, Labour MP Mr Straw said: “[Officers had] the idea that if they embroidered the truth – and I put that mildly – then they could get the scalp of a Conservative cabinet minister.” He added: “What this shows is a poverty of leadership by the federation and a readiness by them to resort to completely inappropriate behaviour, which you would not expect of anybody, but least of all of police officers.” In September last year Mr Mitchell was accused of calling Met officers “f***ing plebs” after they refused to open a Downing Street gate for him. He denied using the word but agreed to meet three representatives of the Police Federation. The officers gave media interviews in which it was claimed they misrepresented what Mr Mitchell had told them.

West Mercia Police carried out an internal inquiry which found the three had no case to answer, a verdict it stands by. But the IPCC, the police watchdog, disagreed yesterday, questioning the officers “honesty and integrity” and saying there was evidence of a deliberate attempt to smear Mr Mitchell. It came at a time when the Government was at loggerheads with the federation over police budget cuts. The Crown Prosecution Service is now considering whether to bring charges after a long running investigation into the original plebgate incident. As posted in the Financial Times: Pressure mounts for overhaul of UK police regulation Pressure is building on the government to overhaul the way the police service is regulated in the wake of the Andrew Mitchell “plebgate” affair, with the former policing minister the latest to call for radical action. Nick Herbert, the Conservative police minister until last year, added his voice to calls to radically change the Independent Police Complaints Commission, or even to scrap it altogether. Mr Herbert told the Financial Times: “I think the time has come to look again at the system of police regulation.

Either the IPCC should investigate or it should not – the current system of ‘supervised complaints’ is neither fish nor fowl.” Mr Herbert, who oversaw the introduction of elected police and crime commissioners, said the system of police investigating themselves while supervised by the IPCC did not work. The Tory MP is the latest to criticise the oversight system, which saw the IPCC issue a highly critical report into three senior police officers on Tuesday but not take any further action. The report focused on a meeting between Andrew Mitchell and senior officers from three forces soon after Mr Mitchell, the former chief whip, was accused of having insulted a Downing Street policeman by calling him a “pleb”. The three officers at the meeting told the media afterwards that Mr Mitchell had not provided a full account of the altercation at the gates outside Number 10, but the secretly recorded conservation showed afterwards that he had gone into detail about what happened. The incident is the latest allegation of wrongdoing against officers over the “plebgate” affair. Eight others have been arrested after it emerged that witness testimony from the incident was written by a policeman who was not there.

It is also another blow to public trust in the police service, which has recently been accused of covering up its role in the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, failing to investigate phone hacking and ignoring allegations of child abuse by Jimmy Savile. Damian Green, the current police minister, told the College of Police on Wednesday: “[Corruption and misconduct] can have a corrosive effect on the reputation of all police officers, undermines justice and fundamentally strikes at the heart of public confidence in the police.” The run of scandals to hit the service has renewed interest in fundamental reform of the police, especially of the way it is overseen. Sir Hugh Orde, the head of the Association of Police Officers, on Wednesday became the highest ranking member of the service to call for an end to self-regulation. He told the BBC: “[We need] a completely independent police investigation system – I think that is critical.” So far, ministers have argued that the solution to police regulation is to expand the IPCC rather than dismantle it. Theresa May, the home secretary, announced in February she would give the body more resources and allow it to compel officers to attend interviews. But others say a more fundamental change is needed.

Labour has argued for the IPCC to be replaced by a Police Standards Authority that could launch its own investigations, hold public hearings and impose sanctions. Mr Mitchell and his supporters, however, warn the focus on the role of the regulator could detract from attention on what was done by individual officers. David Davis, a close ally of Mr Mitchell, said on Wednesday: “The police are trying to mob the referee, to take away from the very serious nature of the allegations.” As published in The Guardian: Comment is free: In brief: Plebgate’s greatest revelation? So many of us believed the police Now and again a seemingly trivial episode serves to illuminate a much larger political or social problem. It can also conveniently act as a litmus test, demonstrating how far people are capable of objective judgment, or are swayed by prejudice. On the evening of 19 September last year, Andrew Mitchell, the Tory chief whip at the time, wanted to push his bike through the gates of Downing Street.

The policemen at the gate said he couldn’t, and a short altercation ensued, with Mitchell saying: “I thought you guys were fucking meant to help us.” That might have been the end of the matter, maybe with private apologies – from Mitchell for swearing at the police, and from the constabulary for behaving in such an officious way. What happened instead was that the Sun ran a story saying that Mitchell had called the policemen “fucking plebs”, a word taken up by Ed Miliband, shouting “plebs” across the Commons, as well as newspapers. Mitchell arranged a meeting with the Police Federation to clear the air, but the policemen he met then quoted him in a way plainly designed to damage him and force him to resign, which he did. But Mitchell had tape-recorded the meeting and, after far too long, Deborah Glass of the Independent Police Complaints Commission has just concluded that the policemen’s distorted version of that meeting raised an “issue of honesty and integrity, not merely naive or poor professional judgment”. That still doesn’t address the original incident, the truth about which was revealed earlier this year – not by an official inquiry but by Channel 4 News. Using CCTV footage it showed that the police account simply could not be true.

In particular a description supposedly from the police log, and also leaked to the press, was demonstrably false. An inquiry by the Metropolitan Police into the incident still hasn’t finished. What’s hard to get over is not the revelation that our police can be corrupt and mendacious – what else is new? – but that they can be quite so reckless, and that so many people are so credulous. It was quite plausible to suppose that Mitchell should have sworn at the police. What was unlikely to the point of absurdity was that he would have called them “plebs”. It’s as if the police had quoted him saying, “Zounds and curses upon thy head, thou varlet.” One might have thought that the police would have been a little more cautious about colluding with the Sun just at a time when the phone-hacking story had shown the extent of the corrupt relationship between the Met and the Murdoch press, but no. Tom Newton Dunn, the Sun’s political editor, appeared in a T-shirt that said “I’m a pleb”. No, you’re an Old Etonian, and you work for the paper that published even more wicked lies from the police about the Hillsborough disaster.

There are too few heroes in this dismal story: certainly not David Cameron, who abandoned his colleague; nor Miliband, who should now apologise to Mitchell. On the right, the libertarian Tory David Davis deserves a campaign medal, but so does Chris Mullin on the left. Apart from saying that, from his long experience of working with unions and cases of injustice, the Police Federation is the only union he knows that will defend a member even if he has obviously lied and broken the law, the former Labour MP makes the crucial point: if the police can do this to a cabinet minister, what will they do to a frightened black boy on a working-class street – or to any of us? Geoffrey Wheatcroft is the author of The Strange Death of Tory England. As published in The Guardian: May rebukes police over reaction to Plebgate: ‘Quite wrong’ if officers avoid disciplinary hearing: Mitchell boosted by call for apology from force. The plebgate affair escalated yesterday when Theresa May challenged a chief constable’s decision not to take disciplinary action against police who allegedly gave misleading accounts of a meeting with Andrew Mitchell last year.

In a boost to the former chief whip, who is fighting claims that he called police officers who were guarding Downing Street “fucking plebs”, the home secretary called on West Mercia’s chief constable to apologise to Mitchell, saying that the conduct of officers at the meeting struck at the issue of trust in the service. May made the comments after the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) challenged a police account of a meeting between Mitchell and the Police Federation in his Sutton Coldfield constituency on 12 October 2012. Representatives of West Mercia, West Midlands and Warwickshire police met Mitchell after the federation told him it wanted to “clear the air” after the confrontation when police declined to allow him to wheel his bike through Downing Street’s gates on 19 September 2012. Mitchell admitted in the meeting, dubbed by one friend “Kafkaesque” and a “brutal” display of police power, of having sworn in the presence of the officers but insisted he did not call them plebs. Ken MacKaill, the main spokesman for the three officers, who did not speak during the meeting, asked Mitchell to resign after the talks.

Mackaill said: “He is continuing to refuse to elaborate on what happened. I think his position is untenable.” But the IPCC said that a record of the meeting by Mitchell showed that he had used it to outline his central defence – that he had sworn in the presence of the officers but insisted that he had not used the word pleb. In the report Deborah Glass, deputy chair of the IPCC, said of the officers at the Sutton Coldfield meeting: “Their motive seems plain: as the West Mercia investigating officer noted, ‘they were running a successful, high-profile, anti-cuts media campaign and the account that he provided to them did not fit with their agenda’.” The remarks prompted the home secretary to issue a rare rebuke after the chief constable of West Mercia, David Shaw, concluded that there was no reason to discipline the police. Appearing at the Commons home affairs select committee, May said: “The police need the trust of the public.

These sorts of incident will strike at the heart of that issue of trust.” Asked if the chief constable of West Mercia, the force that ran the investigation into the officers, should apologise to Mitchell, she said: “I think that would be appropriate.” May added that it was “quite wrong” that the three officers were not to face disciplinary hearings. Keith Vaz, chairman of the select committee, announced that he would summon Shaw, the Police Federation chairman, Steve Williams, and Glass. Mitchell, who has been waiting more than a year for the outcome of the investigations into police officers over claims that they leaked information and conspired against him, said: “It is a matter of deep concern that the police forces employing these officers have concluded that their conduct has not brought the police service into disrepute. Most people will disagree.” The Police Federation accused the IPCC of acting as judge and jury, prompting David Davis, the former shadow home secretary who is Mitchell’s closest ally, to say: “The police seem not to understand that is the law.

Obeying the law and enforcing the law happens to be their job.” A joint statement from the chief constables of Warwickshire, West Mercia and West Midlands forces said: “Andrew Mitchell MP has never made a complaint to police. West Mercia, with the support of West Midlands and Warwickshire police, independently decided to investigate this incident and made a referral to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.” The skirmish was the opening act to the decision by the Crown Prosecution Service on eight individuals – including five police officers – accused of leaking to the media, misconduct and being part of a conspiracy to discredit Mitchell. One friend of Mitchell accused the police of having acted in a heavy-handed way in the disputed meeting. The transcript shows that Mitchell repeated his apology to the officer in Downing Street, admitted that he swore but then insisted that he had not used the word pleb.

Search Plebgate officer Keith Wallis jailed for 12 months - Telegraph Law and Order Plebgate officer Keith Wallis jailed for 12 months Keith Wallis admitted in police interview to lying over claim he had seen what happened as Andrew Mitchell left Downing Street, Old Bailey hears Pc Keith Wallis has been given 12 months in prison over Plebgate affair Photo: Eddie Mulholland By Agencies 2:54PM GMT 06 Feb 2014 A police officer who lied about witnessing the Plebgate row was jailed for 12 months today. Keith Wallis, 53, of West Drayton, west London, sent an email to Conservative deputy chief whip John Randall, who was his MP, wrongly claiming that he had seen what happened as Andrew Mitchell left Downing Street on September 19, 2012. Last month, the officer from the Metropolitan Police diplomatic protection group pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to misconduct in a public office. The court heard he admitted his lie in a police interview and offered to resign. In the interview he told police: "It was a lie to say I was there.

The truth is I was in Whitehall having a drink and when I overheard colleagues talking about it the next day I was incensed so I emailed my MP. Related Articles Andrew Mitchell: pressure continues as MPs to debate 'plebgate' - Telegraph PMQs Andrew Mitchell: pressure continues as MPs to debate 'plebgate' The pressure on Andrew Mitchell to resign over claims he described police guarding No 10 as 'plebs' is set to continue into next week after Labour forced a debate on the scandal. By Christopher Hope and Rosa Prince 12:34PM BST 18 Oct 2012 Comments Andrew Mitchell is under increased pressure to resign over claims he described police guarding No 10 as 'plebs' after Labour forced a debate on the scandal. MPs will discuss the altercation, in which the Chief Whip is said to have sworn at officers who refused to let him cycle through the main Downing Street gates, during an Opposition Day Debate on Wednesday. The move means that despite attempts by No 10 and Mr Mitchell to draw a line under the scandal, the row is certain to continue for a fifth week.

Yesterday, four weeks after Mr Mitchell allegedly called police officers in Downing Street “f****** plebs”, Mr Mitchell’s future as chief whip was repeatedly questioned by MPs at a meeting of the party’s backbench 1922 committee. Around 100 MPs debated Mr Mitchell’s future for half an hour at the start of the meeting, forcing the Chancellor George Osborne, who was due to address the gathering on the Government’s economic policy, to wait outside. Related Articles Andrew Mitchell must step down 11 Oct 2012 Around eight of the 20 MPs who spoke at the meeting raised question marks about Mr Mitchell’s ability to continue as chief whip. Five of them – thought to be Philip Davies, Anne Main, Andrew Percy, former whip James Duddridge and Sarah Wollaston - are understood to have suggested Mr Mitchell “should consider his position”. A further three Conservative MPs said they had initially thought he should resign but had since changed their minds. The discussion ended with MPs being called to show their support for Mr Mitchell. However sources in the meeting in a Commons committee room said a number demonstrated their concern by failing to applaud or bang the desks.

A senior party source said afterwards that the MPs had concluded it would serve no one if Mr Mitchell resigned now. But he added that “will need to rebuild his relationships”, raising the prospect that Mr Mitchell’s authority as chief whip has been fatally undermined by the affair. While the MPs were meeting, rumours swept Westminster that Mr Mitchell’s deputy im the whip's office John Randall MP had resigned. Last night Downing Street was forced to deny that this was the case. The fact the row is still dominating Westminster, nearly a month after taking place, is leading some to question why Downing Street has been unable to get a grip on it. The meeting came hours after Ed Miliband launched a fierce attack during Prime Minister's Question Time over plebgate affair. As the Labour leader accused him of using “abusive language” towards police during the encounter last month, Mr Mitchell is said to have muttered: “I didn't swear.” The denial apparently contradicted a briefing made on his behalf by friends to a Sunday newspaper shortly after the row, when he allegedly said: “You guys are supposed to f***ing help us.” Michael Fabricant, a former Tory whip, appeared to confirm that the words were used, after he accused Mr Mitchell of reigniting the row.

He tweeted: “Oh dear. Labour were never going to let the story go away, but now he has managed to re-ignite it himself. Self-ignition? “Several MPs have confirmed to me that AM did indeed say #pmqs ‘I didn't swear’ (at the police). This puts a whole new light on the issue.” During his Prime Minister’s Question Time clash with Mr Miliband, David Cameron defended Mr Mitchell, saying that he had said sorry to the police involved, and that his apology had been accepted. “That is why this Government will get on with the big issues of helping Britain compete and succeed in the world,” he added. But the Labour leader hit back: “I think it's a real issue, abusing police officers. Just because a police officer has better manners than the chief whip, it doesn't mean he should keep his job. “They say that I practise class war and they go around calling people plebs." He went on: “While it is a night in the cell for the yobs, it is a night at the Carlton Club for the Chief Whip. “Isn't that the clearest case there could be of total double standards? His position is untenable.

In other words, he is toast.” As Mr Mitchell appeared to protest at the claim he swore at officers, Mr Miliband said: "He says from a sedentary position he didn't. Maybe he will tell us what he actually did say." In his only official comments about the altercation, Mr Mitchell said last month: “While I do not accept that I used any of the words that have been reported, I accept I did not treat the police with the respect they deserve.” Widgets Magazine 0 41810 The Sun newspaper is seeking to file a lawsuit against Britain’s Metropolitan Police (MET) claiming they violated journalists' human rights when they accessed phone records related to the “plebgate” affair of 2012. © Flickr/ Daniele Zanni Private Police Facebook Group Reveals Racism of British Force Britain's police face a tribunal over the 'plebgate' phone records with mobile phone data showing the whereabouts of the three reporters who covered the incident.

The "Plebgate" (or "Plodgate", "Gategate") is a scandal dating back to 19 September 2012 between the Government Chief Whip Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell, who later resigned because of the incident, and the police of the United Kingdom. MET looked for phone call records between Mitchell and police following the newspaper article about their dispute. Scotland Yard aimed to uncover the police officer who leaked the incident to the newspaper and had received official permission to seek the records. The three journalists in question appealed to the European Convention of Human Rights that protects freedom of speech while claiming the police actions were unwarranted Now read the Sun story. Very serious allegations (not from me) against sitting MP. Full police investigation essential immediately.

Question: In 2012 which MP resigned over the “Plebgate” affair?
Answer: Andrew Mitchell