WEST Mercia Police Chief Constable David Shaw is due before MPs today over the ‘plebgate’ saga.
Mr Shaw was to appear at the Home Affairs Select Committee in Westminster this afternoon, along with Inspector Ken MacKaill – one of the Police Federation members who met with former Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell following the incident in which he allegedly called police officers ‘plebs’.
The MP came under fire in September last year after allegedly aiming the insult at officers who asked him to leave Downing Street via a pedestrian gate, a claim he has always denied.
The following month, representatives of the Police Federation from West Mercia, Warwickshire and West Midlands met with Mr Mitchell and told reporters afterwards he had failed to tell them the exact words he had used – an account later refuted in a transcript of the meeting from a recording made by Mr Mitchell.
An investigation by West Mercia Police into the meeting published last week concluded the officers should not face disciplinary action.
However, the three officers have apologised for “poor judgement” in how they represented the meeting, but David Davis MP yesterday said the apology was “simply not good enough” and called for them to face a misconduct panel.
The chief constables of West Midlands and Warwickshire police forces will also give evidence, along with Det Sgt Stuart Hinton and Sgt Chris Jones – the other two officers who met with Mr Mitchell last year.
Your Worcester News reporter Ian Craig will be in Westminster today - follow his live blog on this website this afternoon
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