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Andrew Mitchell (CC licensed image by DFID - UK Department for International Development:Flickr)Leaked 'Plebgate' email claims Andrew Mitchell continually ignored Downing St bicycle rules
Andrew Mitchell, the former government chief whip at the centre of the 2012 'Plebgate' row, is reported to have clashed repeatedly with police officers by insisting on riding his bike through the main gates of Downing Street, rather than using a pedestrian side gate as he was supposed to do.
The claim has been made in a leaked email sent by a police officer to his superiors at 00:46am on 19 September 2012 - the very day of the incident in which Mr Mitchell was alleged to have sworn at officers and called them "plebs," something the Conservative MP for Sutton Coldfield has always denied, although he did admit being "disrespectful."
In the email, a copy of which was obtained by The Times [£], the unnamed officer sought guidance over whether Mr Mitchell should be told to use the pedestrian gate,as stipulated in Downing Street rules regarding safety and security, or whether officers should make an exception for him given his repeated insistence that he should be allowed to ride his bike through the main gate.
The officer wrote: "When he [Mr Mitchell] was initially denied this, he went on to say 'I am the Government Chief Whip and I will be leaving via these gates. I have been in and out of these gates three times today and I will be leaving this way, thank you.'"
Because it was "quite late and quiet" and in order not to create an embarrassing scene, Mr Mitchell was allowed to leave via the main gate on that occasion.
The officer noted: "This rule [to use the pedestrian side gate] was brought in for the safety of the cyclist, officers and tourist/visitors at the front of the street and presumably for the general security of The Street and people in it."
With Mr Mitchell's apparent insistence he should be allowed to break that rule in conflict with the duty of the police officers guarding the gates to enforce it, the officer - with no little prescience, given the way the row would escalate the following day - asked for guidance of what to do.
"Can you please confirm, as I'm sure this will keep happening unless people of much higher rank or of standing in the street/house/government than me have an input, how would you suggest we play this?
"Do we just stand our ground (but have the backing of yourself if something comes of it in the future!) as it was already explained to him that it was for his safety, and for the security of the street, but on this occasion it would most certainly have brought serious repercussions on the officers etc, who decided on this occasiono use their discretion, or do we allow him (only) to use the main gates for his arrivals and departures at all times, as he was adamant he WAS GOING THROUGH THOSE GATES and he's the 'Government Chief Whip!'"
The email concluded: "He may also need to be advised, that for his own safety at least, that he may need to get some lights for his bike if he is going to ride it during hours of darkness!"
It appears that the concerns raised in the police officer's email came too late for a decision to be made prior to the events that evening which made national headlines and led to Mr Mitchell resigning from his cabinet position the following month.
Tendering his resignation to Prime Minister David Cameron, he wrote: "The offending comment and the reason for my apology to the police was my parting remark 'I thought you guys were supposed to f*cking 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."
There was a further twist in December 2012 when it emerged a police constable with the diplomatic protection force had been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public office in connection with his report of what had happened at the Downing Street gates on the evening in question, and two days later a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary raised doubts over the police version of events.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe ordered an investigation, and during 2013, eight people, five of them police officers, were arrested and bailed in connection with the incident.
In November, the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which had critcised the findings of an internal Metropolitan Police report into the episde, said it was launching its own investigation and later that month said that five members of the force's diplomatic protection group would face gross misconduct proceedings.
Separately, Metropolitan Police officer Keith Wallis was charged with misconduct in a public office after sending his MP an email in which he claimed to have witnessed the Downing Street incident. Last week, at Westminster Magistrates' Court, he admitted the offence and was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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43 comments
Being a huge pretentious prat isn't a crime. What the officers did could be considered a number of crimes and "gross misconduct" and a dismissal/final warning is a favorable outcome for the police officers involved.
Lot's of people might think the critics writing here that 'Mitchell's personality should diminish his right to justice' are also opinionated/judgmental prats. Following their own logic those critics here should feel that it's fair game to fit them up for something they didn't do...
Prescience or preparatory set-up? I sent in an FoI request for a copy of these "rules" when it first happened and they weren't able to provide one. So do these rules actually exist or are they making them up? An opportunity for a bit of investigative journalism by road.cc?
Mitchell is just another pompous establishment, I am above petty laws meant for others who was slapped with wet fish and told to squeal deliverance style while being ridden by a fat faux hillbilly from Chelsea when at prep school...... Or, dam was that me?
So a senior politician is a pompous ar$e and some police officers are liars. Unfortunately it's not really news
oovaveared. You beat me to the punch about the existence of the gates at Downing Street. Sadly many English folk are clueless to these measures. They consider them as an infringement to their rights as seems to come through from some on this thread. All they can think is why the hell can't a copper just have opened the gate and not been a jobsworth.
Back in Belfast after the Provos tried to blow up the High Court. A blast wall was built resulting in the loss of a traffic traffic lane on two sides of the building. The other two roads were sealed creating a sterile area on the other two. Result. A detour of nearly a mile through the one way system to get to east Belfast from the city centre.
A pain in the arse for all road users including pedestrians. Andrew Mitchell given his past should have know better and not been a pompous ass. The officers involved with the leaks an embarrassment to their force. And for those on duty. Well they were just doing their job. Imagine. I wonder how people here would react if somebody got them to 'bend' the rules in their job?
Joeinpoole - you are completely and utterly wrong. I was NOT one of the people who said we could drum up witnesses as you put it and i find that extremely offensive.
You seem to eagerly forget the numpty DID swear at Police, he admitted that, just because he could not go through a gate on his bike which started this whole sorry escapade off.
I always say if they lie and get caught TOUGH the Police does not need them and they deserve everything they get.
I presume by 'numpty' you are referring to a politician elected by the people and appointed Minister of State by the Prime Minister? Funny how you you get so upset that someone might refer to a policeman as a 'pleb', even when you know they didn't, but you feel it is fine for you to call an elected official a 'numpty'.
Yes, he did use the f-word (once) in conversation with the police but that didn't "start this whole sorry escapade off". It was the two coppers who colluded with each other and completely invented the story of him calling them plebs that actually started it off.
Unless of course, in your little police-world, you think that if someone were to swear at police then the police are fully *entitled* to invent a story to stitch them up __ which is basically what you are inferring. That exactly confirms my suggestion that the police will invent 'evidence' or 'witnesses' in order to exact revenge on whoever they feel wronged by.
Only if they lie and get caught! That speaks volumes. Sadly many of the times there never found out!
Jaysus...TF I live in Ireland....we don't have ANY corrupt politicians or gardai...
The 'rule' which required Mitchell to use the pedestrian gate was not a rule. It was a convention which had grown up due to the Metropolitan Police's inability to understand that cyclists and pedestrians are not the same.
The Downing Street police officers objected to carrying out the strenuous task of opening the gate for cyclists, and tried to persuade them to use the pedestrian gate, Andrew Mitchell believed that they should do the job for which they were paid. It is just another example of the Met treating cyclists as second class citizens.
I wish that instead of Pleb-Gate they had called it Gate-Gate
Normally i'd agree with you but if them informing their superior officers of the events by email as it was revealed they did would suggest they were instructed to guide all arrivals / leavers to the pedestrian gate.
I wouldn't care if they asked / told me too leave by that gate, it's not a big issue, just some jumped up, self important idiot feels to have made it one.
There's a lot more to get annoyed about than this silly crap.
FWIW the Plod have fecked up and its tainted their reputation badly and each one them bent bastards needs dealing with robustly. But having followed this from the start (not too deeply I might add) and now having seen this article, well it just reinforces my view that Mitchell is a complete cock who seems to think being Chief Whip places him above the law and above the authority of Police officers that were directed to maintain security and safety around No10. Self-righteous and self-important twat. Cyclist or not.
He embarassed the government with his behaviour too. Thought he was too important to follow rules and use the side gate. Goverment ministers lead by example, but most of them are corrupt in one way or another.
I went to Downing Street in about 1978, there weren't any gates and no bombs went off.
Should have come back again in 1991 and you'd have watched the mortar attack by the IRA. And you would have seen the gates installed in 1989 based on inteliigence that PIRA were about to use a new tactic. Proxy Bombs or human bombs. PIRA didn't go in for suicide bombing but the next best thing was a proxy bomb.
Basically you kidnap a person's family and force them to drive a vehicle bomb to a destination. You tell them to just get out and walk away but in reality you remotely detonate it (them and all) as soon as it is in place.
PIRA used this kind of attack on 3 targets simultaneously in NI. They used waht they called collaborators people who worked for the UK Govt or armed forces. Strapped them into the vehicles and got them to driive to their destination. All three bombs were detonated.
At Coshquin checkpoint they used a Catholic man a cook who worked at Fort George. The device 450 kg was rigged with a timer as a back up but the main actuator was the courtesy light. Open the door and bang. The cook tried to get out and warn the soldiers at the checkpoint. He opened the door. The cook and five soldiers were killed
Same evening at Cloghoge another Catholic man that ran a filling station and who served the police and army at his garagewas the collaborator. This one had a ton of explosives in and was driven to the Cloghoge border checkpoint. Aparrently the man claims he was whispered a warning not to open the door but to get out of the window. He reached the checkpoint stopped climbed out the window. At which point he was challenged, warned the soldier of the of the bomb but it was then detonated remotely by the follow car. One soldier was killed.
In Omagh the same night the bomb failed to detonate.
There were several more attacks in NI one in Newtownbutler and another in Magherafelt.
They used the tactic again in 1993 in London but this time as a diversion. Two London cabbies were targeted One targeted at Downing St and the other at Scotland Yard. The cabbies managed to shout warnings and get people away so no casualties. The diversion was for the Bishopsgate Bomb. That one killed a journalist and injured 40 people and caused huge and expensive damage.
And that my friend is why there are 12 ft gates stopping vehicles going into Downing Street.
Oooooops
Agree wholeheartedly. The security industry is a self promoting entity which cannot be challenged. I do not want to live in a country that has a striking resembalance to a West Bank settlement.
I work in the water industry and the many millions being spent on security could have a substantial benefit if spent on the aged infrastructure it's trying to protect.
Grouse over.
Happy and Safe Cycling
Not impressed that road.cc has fallen for perpetuating this obvious public distraction programme.
The man is a buffoon and does not deserve the time it takes for me to type this.
"i'm a chief whip so you lot should do as your told". poke it
It seems to me that there are two types of people in the world. There are those who think that the police were entirely to blame for this incident. Then there are the police.
Ha ha - hear, hear!
Trust "stumps" to come out with the usual police diatribe.
Stumps the the man is an elected politician who makes the law unlike your colleagues who are scum that think they are above the law. When police think they are better than the lawmakers you have a police state. You comments supporting these lying criminal officers do neither your or your service any credit
Stumps hasn't supported those crooks in any way. Ad hominem attacks are not OK.
Yes he has. Also stumps wrote:
"!He is a small minded buearocrat and a bully (being chief whip requires that in a politician) - as the earlier email proves. But hey dont let the truth get in the way of having a pop at the Police, its never stopped people on here before has it, lol"
If you make Ad hominem attacks then surely you should expect them back.
You quoting him disparaging Mitchell does not equate to him supporting the lying police officers.
What evidence backs up your assertion that he does?
Not exactly the Police service's finest hour this. They should stop digging the embarrassing hole they've created for themselves.
We should get get C4 to do the investigations into the police as the police are clearly incapable of doing it themselves.
What is the danger involved in riding through the main gate? Land mines? Trip wires? Those little blow-darts that nearly got Indy at the start of Raiders of the Lost Ark?
Mitchell gets my support 100% as a cyclist.
This whole incident has been very instructive on the attitudes of the police and how willing they are, at all levels, to lie.
A hearty thank you to Mr.Mitchell for sticking to his guns and refusing to be unreasonably discommoded by his choice of transport.
What has this to do with cycling other than Andrew Mitchell has a bike.
BTW I think the Police officers have shamed themselves and brought disrepute on other blameless officers in the whole Plebgate Row.
But the gate across Downing Street is there for security to stop people (protesters, terrorists etc entering Downing Street. It ought to be opened as few times as is necessary. Walking your bike through a security gate is hardly the end of the world.
I have stood guard and in the military it is pretty simple. If you are the guard (most senior rank rule applies) then you are in charge of security and for enforcing the standing orders.
As it was put to me
"It doesn't matter whether Jesus F**ing Christ turns up with the angel Gabriel and the heavenly choir if he doesn't have a the right orders he doesn't go past you unless he's already struck you down with a lightning bolt.. and even then you'll be doing time in the glasshouse for it. dead or not."
Similar arguments based on "safety" could be made for insisting that cyclists make turns across junctions using the pedestrian signals and crossings. I'm sure I could think of more.
It seems relevant to me because it has been decided that the convenience of motorized vehicles is prioritized above cyclists. If the fear is "terrorist attacks" then why are they opening a bloody big gate to motor vehicles? It would be much safer to have a smaller gate and make all egress/ingress pedestrian. The terrorism argument is just hand waving.
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