Federation representatives apologise following critical report over Pleb-gate

Two Police Federation representatives at the centre of the Pleb-gate inquiry have apologised to the Home Affairs Select Committee (HASC) for misleading Parliament, after a damning report criticised police leadership.

HASC recalled Sergeant Chris Jones (West Midlands Police) and Detective Sergeant Stuart Hinton (Warwickshire Police) on Tuesday (November 5) to apologise for misleading it.

A HASC report, published on November 3, said the officers’ accounts to the committee on October 23 were misleading, possibly deliberately so, and lacking in credibility. It has made a complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) about the officers’ evidence.

Both had, along with West Mercia Police’s Inspector Ken MacKaill, attended a meeting with former Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell in October 2012 regarding an alleged altercation between Mr Mitchell and a police officer at the gates of Downing Street the previous month.

After the meeting, the three representatives gave statements to the media accusing the MP of not giving a full account and called for him to resign. Their accounts contradicted with a recording made by the MP’s aide.

Giving evidence at Tuesday’s HASC hearing, Det Sgt Hinton said he had not intended to mislead the committee by appearing to suggest he had not used the term “this woman” to refer to the Home Secretary Theresa May in the meeting with Mr Mitchell, contradicting a transcript of the conversation.

He said he “did not remember using the words” but upon re-listening to the recording of the meeting, he accepted he had used the term. Det Sgt Hinton apologised to HASC for his inaccuracy and apologised to Mrs May for the terms used.

Sgt Jones added that he too had not intentionally misled HASC on the number of complaints made against him during his police career – while there have been 13, none led to misconduct proceedings and only two saw any action taken, one over the use of force, another over performance of duties.

“If the committee was misled by my answers, then this was wholly unintentional,” he said.

Both officers said they are not indifferent to Mr Mitchell’s predicament and regret the distress caused to him and his family since the original incident in Downing Street.

“Each of us fully recognises and regrets the fact that such distress has been caused. We share the belief that the investigation into the original incident in Downing Street has already taken a disproportionate amount of time and should be resolved in the interests of all parties without delay.”

HASC has reserved the right to recall Inspector MacKaill should it be found that he too misled the committee.

At the hearing, Dame Anne Owers, the chair of the IPCC, added that the two complaints by HASC had been recorded and referred to the IPCC by the forces in question and would be independently investigated.

In its report, the committee welcomed the apologies given by the chief constables of the three forces involved, although it said the decision by West Midlands’ and Warwickshire’s chief constables not to seek a redetermination of an investigation into the officers’ actions was a mistake.

Warwickshire Police Chief Constable Andy Parker was also criticised for seeking to correct the evidence Det Sgt Hinton gave to the committee “in a manner which suggested that he lacked impartiality”.

And West Midlands Police’s Assistant Chief Constable Gary Cann was criticised for attempting to access the final report of the misconduct investigation prior to it being signed off by the IPCC.

“The committee regretted an absence of leadership by all three chief constables at a critical time which could have, if utilised earlier, prevented reputational damage to the police service,” it said.

The report said the IPCC should have carried out an independent inquiry in this case, although it recognises that resource constraints were the main factor behind the decision not to do so. It called for further resources to be allocated to the IPCC so that cases which may impact on public confidence in policin