Andrew Mitchell needs to resign.

[ColouringIn]

Honestly he does......calliing a serving police officer "a pleb".
What an utter twat of the highest order....spoilt rich scumbag.

[AWomanCalledHorse]

I'd rather Cameron had the balls to sack him.

[MichaelFinnegansWhiskers]

Either of the above would do for me. Is utterly consistent with the reports I heard of his attitudes to staff in his last job. He sounds like a vile character.

[Bossybritches22]

Apparently he denied using the word "pleb", has apologised profusely to the officer concerned & been given a dressing down.

Stupid prat, totally out of order but the officers have (I'm sure) heard worse & in his defence he was only trying to do what he'd done loads of times before & suddenly the rules changed.

Absolutely no excuse for the tirade,but none of us is perfect, & he's not the first person to mouth off after a bad day at the office.

Bloody bad timing after the tragic news of this week, but as the original story came from The Sun I'm not sure the accuracy of the exact wording of the story can be verified, although the incident did happen.

[MichaelFinnegansWhiskers]

Just listening to the news now, and it seems that the police officer has verified the sun's account.

[ColouringIn]

It happened on Wednesday so a day after the two police officers were murdered when the Govt were falling over themselves to say how much they appreciate the police.

Poor timing and he sounds like a nasty piece of work.

[Bossybritches22]

Michael Really? In that case I agree that puts a different light on it. Wasn't sure how much was Sun-Spin. IYSWIM.

His timing is as about as bad as it can get when they must have all been feeling shaky poor sods.

Cameron is bloody furious with him, it does not reflect well.

Bet Mitchell would not have been so rude if he needed their protection. Arse.

[1500mmania]

He should resign - it is a disgrace

my DH works for the met, has worked constantly and tirelessly over the summer fir the jubilee and the olympics. Has annual leave and rest days cancelled at a moments notice, has to fight for overtime so that he can actually investigate cases and charge people, has had transport perks taken away and yet is still exoected to stand up and act when off duty and as we have seen this week unfortunately puts his life on the line everyday when he goes to work.

My DH is not a pleb he is a bloody hardworking man with great morals who wants to make the community he works in better. Yes he has been called worse at work but that just shows the incredible amount of disrespect that society & particularly this government have for the police force.

[threeOrangesocksmorgan]

he should be gone

[HokeyCokeyPigInAPokey]

He needs to resign or be sacked, he cannot stay.

[1500mmania]

Sorry about the spelling mistakes (iphone) & rant!

[Itsjustafleshwound]

It may make him rethink his actions, but certainly won't change the mind set .... More sorry that he was caught rather than contrite ..

[chipstick10]

I dont think the story has that much milage tbh. Im playing devils advocate here but if the awful events hadnt happened this week im not quite sure the story would be that big. And since when did everyone take the Suns word as gospel!!!!!

[SkippyYourFriendEverTrue]

Why should he resign?

They should have opened the gate for him, he gave them some lip and then they went running to the media. I'm sure the police hear much worse every day.

He should not have been rude, but his job is to shout at people, it's not like he's minister for hugs & kisses - he is chief whip, chief enforcer, and it's difficult to see how this affects that.

[edam]

His timing was terrible - verbally attacking a police officer when the news is full of the murder of two policewomen... would be bad enough in normal circs but in context, given he's a senior politician, what a twonk.

[domesticgodless]

Apparently he's known as 'Thrasher' for his obsession with corporal punishment. :-0

Tories love that kind of thing, a 'hard man'. Gah. Repulsive.

He won't be sacked, he just made a mistake blurting out what they all think.

[MrsGuyOfGisbourne]

Have no truck with him - he's obviously a nasty piece of work, but - either the police should have arrested him, if it was an arrestable offence, or stayed schtum if it was just rude and unpleasant, not gone bleating to the Sun.

[domesticgodless]

yes- if he'd been one of us 'plebs' he'd have ended up on the floor with his hands behind his back

[Bluegrass]

I hate the political point scoring that insists on turning molehills into mountains. Man who is probably a bit of an arse gets lippy with police when he is having a bad day and he feels that they are being jobsworths, the end. I wouldn't expect to get sacked for that so I don't see why he should either, a dressing down and an apology seems sufficient. I consider being sacked a massive deal, but in politics it is almost treated like a game by some people who want to see sackings for the most minor of cock ups!

As for calling someone a pleb, I wonder how many people shouting about it being typical of Tory arrogance are guilty of referring to people they consider beneath them as "chavs"? Surely a worse insult than pleb, but it gets wheeled out all the time (including by lots of people on this site). All rather depressingly hypocritical!

[domesticgodless]

Well Bluegrass if I called the security guard at my work a f*ing chav I'd expect to be sacked tbh. I'm kind of surprised you don't.

And no I don't call people chavs for your info. How sad that you assume everyone does. Presumably because you do?

[Bluegrass]

The reality is that i most companies whether you were sacked in those specific circumstances would depend on how senior you were, how valuable you were, and whether a moment of ill temper should be allowed to blot an otherwise good career.

And whilst you might not call people "chavs" (I'll take you at your word in spite of your digs at me) this country is rife with it. "Typical Tory arrogance" just holds a mirror up to a society in which the majority seem to want to find someone to look down on so that they get to feel a bit superior.

[domesticgodless]

Doesn't sound to me like a Tory bully has had 'an otherwise good career'. But I guess he does what it says on the tin: he 'whips' people. The police should have been exempted from that and he should not receive preferential treatment for seniority. In fact as a politician he should be held to a higher standard of behaviour.

It's bizarre that you think people who actively object to the word 'plebs' would use 'chavs'. Really bizarre.

[domesticgodless]

Increasingly I'm amazed at the level of cynical indifference in your post...I guess to you politicians are just CEOs eh? That's the 'real world'? Rubbish. They have standards to live up to and this guy just fell way below them.

[VivaLeBeaver]

Why should they have opened the gates for him? The police are in charge of security at Downing Street over him.

I'm sure that quite rightly they feel every time the main gate is opened it makes the street a bit more vunerable for the time the gate is opened. Someone could take that opportunity to ram through with a car and a suicide bomb. If such a car kept driving past waiting for such an opportunity then the more times the gate is opened the more likely they are to get the timing right.

Yes its unlikely, but perfectly possible.

So I can see why the police would prefer cyclists to use the smaller gate.

He shouldn't have called them plebs or sworn at them. Such behaviour demonstrates the contempt he hold ordinary people in and exposes his delusions of granduer. I hate all these politicans who feel they're so much more important than us, don't have to follow the rules, they're untouchanble, etc. Its wrong.

Now, by denying he said these things he's calling that police officer a liar. Again very wrong. He should have the courage to admit to his mistake and take the consequences. Instead he's a spineless worm who would happily see another person be sacked instead. After all if he's saying the police officer is a liar then the police officer's senior officers will have to look at investigating this officer!

[domesticgodless]

^ what Viva said. Exactly.

[Xenia]

He needs latin lessons from Boris J if he did use that word (which he seems to deny). It's prole not pleb. The plebians were quite well off.

The fact is that the police are pretty working class so that's not inaccurate and if he'd always been allowed to drive that way it is bit much suddenly to change the rules but no one should ever be rude to anyone. In fact the way we all treat the proletariat is the best way to judge people and those of real class are polite in particular to those well below them who cannot in any sense help them. It's a key indicator to me of how good a person is - how they treat proles etc...

Also people should try never to lose their temper however badly they feel. It's a key skill. However awful you feel just don't go shouting at others.

I want to see the CCTV footage. Mumsnetters should put in an FOIA request to view it.