Tories stoking Andrew Mitchell row, says Ken Livingstone

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jan/11/tories-andrew-mitchell-ken-livingstone

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Ken Livingstone has accused the Conservative party of stoking up the row over Andrew Mitchell's comments to police officers and playing down the significance of a cabinet minister swearing at them.

Following PC Keith Wallis's admission that he fabricated his account of hearing Mitchell, the former chief whip, abuse police officers, the former mayor of London said: "I think what the Tories do not understand, all this outrage, for members of the public it is not that he used the pleb word, it is that he used the f word. Here is a cabinet minister coming out of 10 Downing Street and swearing at the officers who put their lives on the line every day," he told the Today programme, "What is bizarre is the amount of effort the Tory party is putting into stoking all of this up."

Wallis pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office at the Old Bailey after falsely claiming in an email to his MP, the Conservative deputy chief whip John Randall, that he had witnessed a confrontation between the then chief whip Mitchell and diplomatic protection officers at the gates of Downing Street on 19 September 2012.

In the email, Wallis purported to be a member of the public and arranged for his nephew to support the false claim that he saw the row in which Mitchell was alleged to have used the word "pleb". In fact, he was not at Downing Street or at work that day.

Wallis, a former diplomatic protection officer, could be jailed when he is sentenced on 6 February. He is the only police officer to have faced criminal charges over the incident, which resulted in Mitchell losing his role in David Cameron's cabinet.

A further seven Metropolitan police officers are facing disciplinary action over the affair, including four who will be subject to gross misconduct hearings in March over claims that they leaked information to the media.

Cameron issued a strongly worded statement as MPs from across the Commons called for Mitchell to be brought back to the cabinet. The prime minister said: "It is completely unacceptable for a serving police officer to falsify an account of any incident. Andrew Mitchell has consistently denied the version of events presented in the email and I welcome the fact that the officer concerned has now pleaded guilty."

Mitchell, MP for Sutton Coldfield, welcomed the guilty plea and pledged to continue the fight to clear his name. "It is very sad and worrying for all of us that a serving police officer should have behaved in this way," he said. "There remain many questions unanswered, in particular why PC Wallis wrote this email and who else was involved in this process.

"I am looking forward to seeing justice done in the up to 10 other related disciplinary cases involving police officers so that I can focus all my energy on delivering for my constituents and help David Cameron win a Conservative majority at the 2015 election."

The row erupted when Mitchell became involved in a heated confrontation with another officer, Toby Rowland, after he was refused permission to cycle through the main gate of Downing Street. Mitchell admitted swearing but has strenuously denied Rowland's claim that he used the word "pleb".

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