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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
Well I wouldn't make them. If I was guarding the vehicle bomb security gate at the entrance to Downing St ie a high security zone then I may well (avid cyclist as I am) require you to dismount.
And what the police officers did to Mitchell was a bloody disgrace and more worryingly if they are prepared to try that on a senior member of the Cabinet, former Army officer, and all round member of the establishment on camera in a high security zone and what is more by supposed elite officers of SO6. Then god help any of the rest of us that they decide to nobble.
The police were absolutely in the wrong on Plebgate. All I am saying is that they were absolutely in their rights to insist that the main vehicle bomb gate wasn't opened just to let a man on a bike out if there was another way. When vehicles use that gate it is a scheduled opening.
From experience it would work like this this. The PM or other VIP vehicles would have DPG officers on board. They are on the net telling the gate guys (and extra gate guys cos they know that the gate will be opened) their arrival time. The gate opens for the shortest possible time.
At that arrival time another set of DPG vehicles will approach from the opposite direction. The road layout around the cenotaph means that two vehicles can seal the road. There are traffic lights in both directions on either side of the junction of Downing Street and Whitehall. The DPG vehicles marked or otherwise approach the lights the lights go red except for the one in the direction of the approaching VIP vehicle. . So while the vehicle bomb gate is open Whitehall is closed for about 30 seconds.
I mention this so that you understand the lengths they go to to ensure that when the gates are open they have a wider perimeter to stop vehicle bombs.
Andrew Mitchell was asking them to just open them and against the rules. He can ask and they can say no. They should have said no. He can get annoyed if he likes. Good security empowers junior ranks to say no even to powerful people. If he wanted to take the policy decision up with PM or their senior officer then he is entitled to do that. He shouldn't have argued with the officers on the gate applying the security rules. He was an Army officer and should have known better.
But none of that excuses the police one Iota for the Plebgate events.
Good explanation, and I understand that you're not defending the actions of the officers that lied.
If Mitchell insisted on being driven everywhere in a car would he have the right to have the gates opened?
I totally agree, those officers who lied are a disgrace. The officers at the gate are spot on, they didn't have to open the gates and Mitchell knew it but just wanted to press his alleged authority.
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
No. Mitchell was stitched up by the police. Entirely. Not only were the 'notes' taken at the scene clearly falsified by more than one officer (because such a conversation couldn't possibly have happened in the time-scale evidenced by CCTV footage) but then an officer totally unconnected to the scene pretended to have been a witness in a letter to his local MP. He's now in jail.
Then police representatives later met Mitchell at his constituency office and, in a press conference immediately afterwards, completely lied about was had been said in the meeting ... again as evidenced by the audio recording of the meeting. They then made complete fools of the themselves (and the police force itself) when cross-examined by the parliamentary commission.
Oh, and the 'evidence' of the pretend witness was not actually discovered by the police themselves, despite a lengthy internal enquiry, but by a C4 reporter in a couple of days without anything like the resources or access to records that the police themselves had.
It has become patently obvious that the police forces' default position on pretty much any issue (on which they may be found at fault) ... is to lie, lie, lie ... and then to lie some more.
Starting from Hillsborough, Stumps, how many instances do you want to me to name where the police have lied, lied and lied to the press and the public in order to cover up their own mistakes?
I can't quite remember but aren't you also one of the policemen on this forum that have confirmed that, if some scally should be rude to one of your colleagues during the process of arrest, that they'd have absolutely no problem in drumming up several 'witnesses' to the "assault of a police officer".
My brother, a mild-mannered retired chemistry teacher, has been telling me for years that "the police in this country are out of control". Until recent events I used to dispute his view and argue in favour of the police. Not now though. Certainly not after 'Plebgate'.
No actually. Those gates don't get opened everytime a minister or anyone else has a meeting at No10. Very few people get driven up that bit of road and when they do it's mostly for show. ie the PM Foreign Heads of State. Even the PM doesn't need to use it as their are other entrances he can come and go from. Basically it's for him to be seen leaving to go to PMQ s or major debates or to the Palace and for Foreign Heads of State to be seen arriving. Mostly everyone else has to walk (if they want to be seen going in to No10 if they don't there are all sorts of ways in from the departments in Whitehall that can be used and mostly they are). Like I say there isn't much point having a low gate and barrier to keep people 3 metres back and create a sterile area in front of the 3m high gate vehicle bomb gate if you have to keep opening it all the time. Hence the rule on most people entering being pedestrians. The obvious point being that it is a damn site easier to search a person for a bomb or a weapon or a substance that it is to properly search a vehicle. Ipso facto only DPG and vetted vehicles enter that road and then as few times as possible.
Like I say Plebgate and the bike thing are too different issues for me. I can absolutely see why the rule is that the vehicle gates stay shut unless planned and necessary openings are agreed. Mitchell may well have been been a pompous git wanting those gates opened when he could leave through the same gate as everyone else. (maybe he wanted to be seen cycling - who knows) The police were within their rights to refuse to open the gates just for him. He porbably shoil;d have said anything at all to the officers by way of his displeasure, but what the officers then did was absolutely disgraceful, illegal and very very worrying. Mitchell may well have been annoying but he has been very badly done by.
Thanks again for that information -- very educational. It's changed my perceptions of this substantially.
Great post, thanks for explaining the detail. Reminds me of being on gate duty at an RAF station and being questioned why I hadn't saluted the driver whose ID I had just checked. I didn't even get to finish the sentence about any outside obervers then knowing he was an officer without him looking embarassed, telling me to shut up and speeding off onto camp.
Quoted because it's the most relevant post, the only person who comes out looking like a complete and utter twat is mr "don't you know who i am".
However, in this case they knew exactly who he was but just decided to be utter jobsworths! A case of intoxicated with their own power I would say.
"What has this to do with cycling..."
This is the knub of the argument that has been lost in the political hysteria.
Is a cyclist a pedestrian with a set of wheels or a person driving a vehicle?
It would seem that a human powered vehicle does not have the same regard as an engine powered vehicle.
This is fundamental to the way cyclists and their vehicles are treated.
So true, they class us as vehicles when they want to, but not when it would be to our advantage. We're some weird hybrid between pedestrians and mopeds... cycle on a pavement and they'll throw the book at you, yet wheel a bicycle across a pedestrian crossing and they'll claim you are a vehicle and not ellegible to protection using that crossing (There was a court ruling recently where a driver got off because they classed the cyclist pushing the bicycle across a crossing as a vehicle instead of a pedestrian and thus there was no mandatory requirement to stop)
If there is a safety issue for cycling out of the gate then perhaps the Police should make the roads safer? Asking him to act like a pedestrian is a bit hypocritical considering the recent Met efforts on paths.
[[[[[ Yes, and perhaps the Uniformed Keepers of the Gates (to10 DownTurn Street) must warn the strolling Proles when a car is entering or exiting, but doing that for a geezer on a bike? Too much hard work----get off and walk, chum. But given A. Mitchell's alledged bad language and loss of cool, it's a wonder he wasn't breathalised.
P.R.
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