Mitchell to grovel to police over 'pleb' sneer

The pressure on the MP to leave his government post has been unrelenting since the pleb-gate scandal broke last month.

West Mercia Police Federation chairman Ken Mackaill will be at tomorrow's meeting and told the Morning Star that "it is difficult to imagine how he can say anything to us now that can draw a line" under the issue, although "the ball is firmly in Mr Mitchell's court.

"It is a concern that the attitude shown by Mr Mitchell is typical of government's attitude towards the Police Service.

"We see cuts that are likely to see 16,000 officers lost by 2015 and it's also noticeable that in his speech to the Conservative Party conference David Cameron didn't mention the police once, despite what the service contributed towards the Olympic Games and the tragic death of our two colleagues in Manchester recently."

Mr Mitchell's latest attempt to get back to business as usual has been dismissed by Metropolitan Police joint executive committee chairman John Tully, who represents the officers on the end of the MP's tirade.

"As far as whether tomorrow's meeting will resolve the issue, I don't think it will because I don't think Mr Mitchell's position will change," said Mr Tully.

"There's a lot of discontent among the Police Service at the moment, along with the other public services.

"When other public services go on strike the government turns to the police to maintain normality if you like - I think they might struggle to do that in the future."