Plebgate

The trigger was an altercation between Conservative MP and Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell and police officers on duty outside Downing Street.

Leaked police logs, later apparently backed up by eyewitness evidence, suggested that Mitchell had sworn at police officers and called them "plebs" (a pejorative word signifying someone of low social class) when they refused to open the main gate for him as he attempted to leave with his bicycle, telling him to walk through the adjacent pedestrian gate instead.

[6]On Thursday 20 September, before the incident was publicly reported, an email was also received by John Randall, MP, the Government's Deputy Chief Whip.

The author stated that he was a member of the public who had been present outside the gates of Downing Street at the time, with his nephew from Hong Kong;[8] and that the incident had been witnessed by other tourists nearby.

[4][11][12] Members of the West Midlands branch of the Police Federation of England and Wales, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and a leader column in The Daily Telegraph called on Mitchell to resign or be sacked.

[14] The Week magazine called it "Gategate",[3] which was picked up by BBC News[2] and Business Insider, with the latter saying that this use of the -gate suffix for scandals had taken "the practice to its logical conclusion" as a "new height of absurdity".

[15] Mitchell apologised on 21 September, saying "I admit I did not treat the police with the respect they deserve", but he denied swearing or calling the officers "plebs".

"[4] John Tully, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said that Mitchell's account was contradicted by notes made by two officers at the scene.

Mr Mitchell's half-hearted apology for the comments made whilst leaving Downing Street will do little to build bridges with the police".

[18] Five days following the event, on 24 September, Mitchell apologised a second time for his behaviour, saying "I didn't show the police the amount of respect which I should have done", but stated that he did not use the words that had been attributed to him.

[9] On 18 December 2012, journalist Michael Crick and former The Cook Report producer Philip Braund identified the author of the 20 September email as a police officer and challenged his account.

[27] On 23 December, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe returned from his holiday to promise "a ruthless search for the truth" of the affair.

[32] On 31 March, as a result of the apparent leaking of the report, he lodged a complaint with the IPCC, accusing the police of a continued campaign to destroy his career.

[34] On 5 September 2014, it was reported that the investigation's conclusion revealed the police had obtained the mobile phone records of the Political Editor of The Sun without his knowledge, through use of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, and in breach of the usual safeguards for the protection of journalistic sources.

[38] Under a separate but related inquiry by the IPCC, three members of the Police Federation were investigated for alleged misconduct over comments they made to the media.

[41] On 10 January 2014, Police Constable Keith Wallis pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court, the Old Bailey, to a charge of misconduct in a public office relating to the email he had sent to John Randall MP.

This prompted the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, to issue a public apology to Andrew Mitchell: The evidence against PC Wallis was such that he pleaded guilty.

Specifically: The IPCC investigation of the three Federation officers, Chris Jones, Stuart Hinton and Ken MacKaill, was on hold for much of 2014, pending a judicial review.

[48] However, on 3 November 2014, this application was unsuccessful, with the three forces' investigations branded by the administrative court "a car crash" and so legally flawed that they were "invalid and of no effect".

[55] On 21 October 2013, the three officers concerned—Ken MacKaill, Stuart Hinton, and Chris Jones—issued a statement in which they apologised for their "poor judgement" in briefing the media about their meeting, and said that they did not intend to mislead the public.

[57] Along with their respective Chief Constables, the three officers appeared before the Home Affairs Select Committee on 23 October in which they told MPs their account of the meeting with Mitchell had been "accurate" and they stood by it.

[60] Home Secretary Theresa May referred to this event, along with others, in a speech on 21 May 2014 which demanded the police address issues of honesty and integrity and that the Federation reform.