Minister says Plebgate officers must apologise to Andrew Mitchell

Three police officers should apologise for making “palpably untrue” statements about the former Chief Whip, Andrew Mitchell, during the so-called Plebgate row, the minister in charge of policing said yesterday.

Damian Green, a Home Office minister, said it was “disturbing” that after three officers from the Police Federation met Mr Mitchell in his West Midlands constituency, they gave an account of the conversation that conflicted with the published transcript.

“Those three police federation reps came out of his meeting in Sutton Coldfield and, to put it mildly, said things that don’t seem to be borne out by the transcript of the meeting. That’s disturbing,” Mr Green told the BBC.

A week before his resignation, Mr Mitchell met Inspector Ken MacKaill, Detective Sergeant Stuart Hinton and Sergeant Chris Jones in Sutton Coldfield, hoping to “clear the air” over allegations about an incident in Downing Street. The three officers were unaware that he was recording the conversation.