The Sun stands by Mitchell ‘pleb’ quote
The Sun is standing by its front page story which accuses Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell of calling police officers ‘fucking plebs’, saying that the newspaper has seen an official police report backing up the claims.
Mitchell, who told reporters “I want to make it absolutely clear that I did not use the words attributed to me”, shouted at officers who would not let him cycle through the main gates at Downing Street, instead asking him to use the side gates.
The Sun has been told that the report, shown to the newspaper after Police Federation representatives spoke to the police officers involved, is backed up by at least two officers.
It has been suggested that the report is being made public by the police because ‘their integrity is now being called into question by Mitchell’s denial’, a source told The Sun.