Labour MPs attempted to pile further pressure on embattled chief whip Andrew Mitchell yesterday, amid renewed demands for him to be sacked over his row with Downing Street police.
Shadow leader of the House of Commons Angela Eagle claimed Mr Mitchell kept “changing his story” and challenged him to divulge to MPs “what he actually did say”.
Leader of the House of Commons Andrew Lansley defended Mr Mitchell in the Commons from a flurry of remarks from the opposition benches relating to Mr Mitchell’s confrontation with officers, saying he was “doing his job well”.
On Wednesday, Labour leader Ed Miliband used the first Prime Minister’s Questions since the incident last month to denounce Mr Mitchell, saying he should have been arrested like any other “yob” who had sworn at officers.
Later that night, at the weekly meeting of the Conservative backbench 1922 committee at Westminster, four Tory MPs were said to have voiced concerns about Mr Mitchell’s position.
Speaking yesterday at the start of Commons Business questions, when Mr Mitchell was absent from the chamber, Ms Eagle said: “There’s a long-standing convention that the chief whip in this House is seen, but not heard. The current government chief whip who is inexplicably not in his place today, would be well advised to observe that convention outside this House too.
“We know the police’s account, they report the chief whip saying that police officers were ‘plebs’…
“The chief whip keeps changing his story and I would have wanted to say to him, had he had the courtesy of this House to attend today, that he should come to the despatch box and tell the House what he actually did say.”
Mr Lansley replied: “The Chief Whip is doing his job well… the Chief Whip knows and made clear that he had made a mistake, he apologised for that.”