Officers ‘should apologise’ for plebgate report

The three police officers accused of giving misleading accounts of a meeting with former chief whip Andrew Mitchell as the “plebgate” scandal erupted should apologise, the head of the Association of Chief Police Officers has said.

Sir Hugh Orde called on Police Federation representatives Ken MacKaill, Stuart Hinton and Chris Jones to apologise in the same way as the chief constables of their forces – Warwickshire, West Mercia and the West Midlands.

The Federation representatives have apologised only for being hasty in speaking to the media following the October 2012 meeting.

They told journalists Mr Mitchell had refused to tell them exactly what he said during a confrontation with officers in Downing Street the previous month. However, the Tory MP recorded the 45-minute meeting and the three were accused of giving a misleading account.

Sir Hugh told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “The other three officers should have apologised in the same manner and style as the chief constables did.”

PA