IPCC rules Stuart Hinton and Ken Mackaill have case to answer over claims they misrepresented meeting with Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Two Police Federation officials will face gross misconduct hearings over the Plebgate scandal involving the Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell after a ruling by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

The watchdog overruled a decision by Warwickshire police that one of the officers, DS Stuart Hinton, should not face a disciplinary hearing and directed it to take action.

The other force involved, West Mercia police, accepted the recommendation that Insp Ken Mackaill had a case to answer.

Mackaill and Hinton were accused of misrepresenting their meeting with Mitchell, which took place after the row about whether the former chief whip called Downing Street police officers “fucking plebs” in September 2012.

Mitchell has always denied saying those words but he lost a libel case against News Group Newspapers (NGN), which was the first to report his alleged use of the politically toxic phrase.

After the meeting in Mitchell’s Sutton Coldfield constituency office, Mackaill wrongly told the media the MP would not provide an account of the incident.

Hinton had to apologise to MPs after after he initially denied referring to the home secretary, Theresa May, as “this woman that the Conservative party have”.

The IPCC initially made a recommendation in July that both men should face hearings after conducting an independent investigation into the conduct of three officials. The watchdog has decided that the threshold for any possible criminal prosecutions was not met.