New footage of the Plebgate incident showing it was witnessed by a member of the public was released by Scotland Yard yesterday, as it emerged that Andrew Mitchell had clashed with police before over access to Downing Street.
A report into the affair revealed how one constable boasted she could “topple” the government, while another officer’s partner appears to have contacted the press to claim she witnessed Mr Mitchell calling police “morons”.
Fresh CCTV appears to show a man watching the exchange between a police officer and Mr Mitchell, the former cabinet minister who denies calling the constable a “pleb” when he was not allowed to cycle through the main gate. PC Toby Rowland claimed in an official log that “several” members of the public were shocked by the exchange, but while the CCTV also shows two women, they appear to be looking away. The witness was never identified and no sound is available, meaning that the argument may never be resolved.
The CCTV was released along with a report into the scandal which prompted accusations of a conspiracy to bring down Mr Mitchell and resulted in the sacking of four police officers, one of whom went to jail.
Mr Mitchell, who was forced to resign as chief whip, has denied using the word “pleb” but admitted swearing at an officer when he refused to let him cycle through the main gate at Number 10 in September 2012. Three officers in the Diplomatic Protection Group were sacked over leaks to the press about the row, and Keith Wallis was jailed for sending his MP an email in which he pretended to have seen the incident.
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The report into Operation Alice, which was overseen by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Patricia Gallan, took more than 1,000 statements and is expected to cost up to £200,000, revealed that Mr Mitchell had had previous clashes with police.
The former head of security and business continuity at Number 10 said that Mr Mitchell complained between March and May 2011 about being denied entry, and said something like: “They should have f***ing known who I am.” A couple of months later, he was refused access on his bike and threatened to write to the police commissioner.
Other patrol reports detailed “encounters” with Mr Mitchell, while a protection officer described “a number of negative interactions” during trips to Africa in April and August 2011.
David Davis, the MP and a supporter of Mr Mitchell, said it was “astonishing” that the police investigation went to such historical lengths.
He said that the report had unveiled “industrial levels of dishonesty” by the police. Messages revealed that one of the sacked officers texted a colleague: “I’m the officer that stopped the chief whip leaving Downing St in Wednesday. He didn’t swear at me but Toby that let him out the side gate. I could topple the Tory government x”.