‘I can topple the Tory government,’ boasted ‘plebgate’ PC

One of the police officers in Downing Street on the night of the “plebgate” incident boasted to a friend that she could bring down the government over the altercation between police and the former chief whip Andrew Mitchell over whether he could be allowed to cycle his bike through the gates of Downing Street.

This startling message emerged tonight in a letter Mitchell sent today to the Metropolitan Police Chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe after a series of police disciplinary hearings which have led to three police officers losing their jobs (and a fourth awaits a verdict, and a fifth hearing has not yet concluded).

Mitchell’s letter contains several fragments of evidence from the tribunal hearings held over the last few weeks, which Mitchell was allowed to attend.  He was accompanied on each occasion either by his wife Sharon or the senior Conservative MP David Davis.

According to Mitchell’s letter to Hogan-Howe, the Downing Street policewoman also texted that “the Fed need our help”.  That’s thought to be a reference to the Police Federation’s dispute with the government over conditions of service.

How the ‘plebgate’ affair unfolded

Mitchell tells Hogan-Howe that the disciplinary hearings show that “at least five” police officers lied in their past evidence, contrary to the assertion carried in the Guardian and Times in March 2013 that the Met investigation of “plebgate” had found “no evidence that police officers lied”.  Those newspaper reports were thought to have been based on a briefing given to the reporters personally by the Met Commissioner himself.

Andrew Mitchell has asked Hogan-Howe to publish transcripts from the recent  disciplinary hearings, together with the extensive evidence of communications between police officers, such as text messages.  He has also demanded that the Met release extra CCTV footage filmed that night which has yet to be made public (which were in addition to the three streams of video material broadcast by Channel 4 in December 2010).  “Surely it must be right to release the CCTV and let the public and journalists draw their own conclusions from what it shows,” Mitchell writes.

He continues: “I am deeply concerned that if any of this information is withheld, and any hint of a cover-up is left in the public mind, a signal will be sent that the police can get away with doing this to people who would have NO chance to fight back and public confidence will be yet further undermined.”

Follow @MichaelLCrick on Twitter

The Metropolitan Police said –

“..the information raised at misconduct hearings is treated as confidential. However, the MPS has already stated publically that a report detailing the Operation Alice investigation will be published in due course. We also intend to publish the summary reports from the chair of the gross misconduct boards.”

They continued –

“There are still outstanding gross misconduct hearings. To ensure that these important hearings are not jeopardised through abuse of process we will not comment any further until they have concluded.