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Plebgate: Met police calls in external force to review Scotland Yard inquiry Plebgate: Met police calls in external force to review Scotland Yard inquiry
(35 minutes later)
The Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, has called in an external force to review Scotland Yard's investigation into the Andrew Mitchell "plebgate" saga. The Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe has called in an external force to review Scotland Yard's criminal investigation into the plebgate saga.
The commissioner revealed on Thursday that he had asked Greater Manchester police (GMP) to come to London to review the investigation as it was taking place. A diplomatic protection officer and a civilian have been arrested and released on bail in connection with the affair, which led to Mitchell's resignation as chief whip and has provided the Met commissioner with the toughest test of his tenure so far. The commissioner revealed to the Guardian on Thursday that he had asked Greater Manchester police to come down to London to review the investigation as it was taking place.
Hogan-Howe said: "We have agreed with GMP to review the inquiry into Andrew Mitchell. We would like the investigation to be reviewed; it is good practice, and this is our reassurance we are doing it well. It is really good practice in this case because there is public interest in the outcome and it affects the government and individuals. Openness and transparency is best." A Met police diplomatic protection officer and a civilian have been arrested and released on bail in connection with the investigation into claims by two police officers that the chief whip Andrew Mitchell swore and called them plebs in Downing Street. The saga has put the Met commissioner under the greatest pressure of his tenure at Scotland Yard.
A team from Manchester will ask questions of the investigating officers and prepare a report of any concerns they might have. Hogan-Howe said the inquiry was ongoing and there was no timescale as to when it would be completed. There have been calls for another force to take over the inquiry, as the Met is effectively investigating its own. But the commissioner said that with the investigation already being supervised by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, an external review of what his officers were doing was the right approach.
A 52-year-old police constable in the diplomatic protection group (DPG) was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office on 15 December last year in connection with an email sent to the deputy chief whip which is at the centre of the investigation. A 23-year-old man – a relative of the officer's – was also arrested in connection with the incident in Downing Street. Both have been released on bail until the end of February. "We have agreed with GMP to review the inquiry into Andrew Mitchell," he said. "We would like the investigation to be reviewed, I am in favour of reviews. It is good practice to have a review and this provides our reassurance we are doing it well.
The plebgate saga has put the government head to head with the Police Federation, and brought controversy on the head of the commissioner when he went on radio to say he stood by his officers. "It is really good practice in this case because there is public interest in the outcome and it effects the government and individuals. Openness and transparency is best."
Two officers in Downing Street accused Mitchell of calling them "plebs" and swearing at them when they would not open the gate to him as he cycled out in September. The Met did not investigate the incident at the time, instead leaving it to the cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood. Hogan-Howe was speaking after giving a lecture at Liverpool University on the future of the terrorist and security threat looking forward to 2020.
The inquiry is also being overseen by the Independent Police Complaints Commission after concerns were raised that the Met was investigating itself. To an audience which included many members of the Merseyside force which he ran for seven years, the commissioner made his most outspoken comments on his desire to keep the control of counter terrorism within the Metropolitan police.
The chief whip has always insisted that he did not use the word pleb. But the log of the incident, leaked to the Daily Telegraph, includes that word. Scotland Yard have never disputed that the log published in the newspaper was not the original made by the two officers. The government is considering moving counter terrorism from within the remit of the Met police to the new National Crime Agency.
The officers – who are still working in the DPG – wrote the incident up in their pocketbooks before filing a log by email which was sent to a number of more senior officers in Scotland Yard. But Hogan-Howe – who would lose a national role as the head of counter terrorist policing if the change took place – questioned why anything should be altered in a structure which had served the country well.
The scandal erupted again when Channel 4 News broadcast CCTV footage of the incident that appeared to challenge the account of the officers. "What is the problem we are trying to remedy?" he said.
"Over many years we have not had terrorist attacks because the security services and the police have worked well together … so we cannot say that we have failed. So why change our present structure? If there was clear evidence that we had failed we would have to change but there isn't."
The commissioner said the new national crime agency which is still being set up, could be overwhelmed in its nascent form by the addition of terrorist responsibilities which might "cause it to fail." He also questioned the sense of making such a dramatic change to the structure of the counter terrorist fight when there was no money to do so.
"Everyone knows we don't have an awful lot of money … we have to consider why we need to invest in a new organisation if what we have is working well."
With Theresa May expected to announce a consultation next week on the introduction of direct entry to police service by outsiders and a law change to allow foreigners to apply for British police jobs, Hogan-Howe indicated he was unsympathetic to foreigners running police forces when they had responsibility for counter terrorism.
"We don't allow that for other jobs. The national security interest means we would not recruit the prime minister, the head of the security services or the head of the army from another country … the police service is part of the greater national security infrastructure. If the argument is you don't ask the head of the security services, the head of the army or the head of the government to be a foreign national perhaps we should consider that seriously when it comes to the police," he said.
He spoke after the former head of the New York Police force, Bill Bratton, indicated in the media that he wanted the job as commissioner of the Met police.
Hogan-Howe understood why Bratton would want such an "incredible" job, but there was no vacancy at the moment as he had no intention of leaving. "Unless somebody tells me otherwise, I have the job," he said.
A team from Manchester police is likely to come to London in the coming weeks to review the plebgate inquiry. Mitchell was forced to resign after two diplomatic protection officers in Downing Street said he had sworn at them and called them "plebs" when they refused to allow him through the main gate.
The saga erupted again when Channel 4 news broadcast previously unseen footage of the altercation which appeared to contradict the officers' accounts. They also revealed that an email purporting to be from an eyewitness was from a police officer who was not present at the time.
The GMP team is likely to take a few weeks to produce a report for the Met on any areas of concern.
A similar review by Durham Police was carried out into the phone hacking investigation, Operation Weeting, which identified a lack of coordination in the way victims were being approached and spoken to.
Hogan-Howe said the plebgate inquiry was ongoing and he had no timescale on when it would be completed.