Police officer held over plebgate leak ‘wasn’t at the scene’ of row

The arrest of a diplomatic protection squad member did not appear to affect the account of officers on the scene of the so-called plebgate spat with Andrew Mitchell, Bernard Hogan-Howe insisted.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission said it is supervising an investigation into the “validity” of the officer’s claim, bel-
ieved to have been made to an MP.

Scotland Yard made the arrest, on suspicion of misconduct in public office, and suspended the individual from duty after fresh information emerged from a leak inquiry.

It remains unclear to what extent, if any, the case is linked to the appearance in national newspapers of details from the official police log of the incident.

Mr Hogan-Howe said “there is more to this than meets the eye” and that he believes the arrest will prove justified when all the facts can be revealed.

Mr Mitchell resigned as chief whip in October after weeks of controversy over an exchange when he was told by police in Downing Street that he could not ride his bicycle through the gates. He admits swearing at an officer but denies calling him a “pleb” or a “moron”, insisting parts of a police log of the incident published in the media were “false”.

The arrest raised speculation that the ex-minister could be vindicated. But Mr Hogan-Howe told London’s LBC 97.3 radio: “I don’t think, in terms of what I’ve heard up to now, that it’s really affected the original account of the officers at the scene. Because of course this officer we’ve arrested wasn’t any of those people involved originally. This is another officer who wasn’t there at the time.”

In a separate BBC interview, he said: “There is more to this than meets the eye. I am afraid I am constrained in explaining that and I hope that when people hear the full story they will support what we’ve done. We got some new information, we acted on it quickly and I hope, in time, when we are able to explain the sequence of events, people understand why we did what we did.”

The story of the set-to emerged in The Sun and transcripts of what was allegedly said appeared later in The Daily Telegraph.