Mitchell clinging on to Cabinet post

UK Political Editor

Thursday 18 October 2012

ANDREW Mitchell continues to cling onto his Cabinet job today after some Tory colleagues openly criticised him and expressed their misgivings about his future while Ed Miliband branded the Coalition's Chief Whip "toast" amid the ongoing row over his alleged remarks to police.

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MICHAEL SETTLE UK POLITICAL EDITOR

For half an hour last night at Westminster, members of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee discussed "plebgate".

A senior party source insisted 15 of the 19 MPs who spoke were supportive of Mr Mitchell continuing but four were not, saying he should consider his position. However, another three suggested at one point they thought he should go, with one backbencher said to have openly called for the Chief Whip to resign.

The senior source explained there was an overwhelming feeling "we can either score a spectacular own goal... or get on with things". He made clear the mood was that "the game is over and the story has run out of steam", stressing: "For him to go now would be crazy."However, the source acknowledged the situation was "messy" and there was a sense Tory MPs were beginning to feel sorry for Mr Mitchell, whose job is to instil discipline in them. "There is a feeling he will need to rebuild relationships," he said, admitting the Chief Whip had been weakened by the controversy. "You don't come through something like this emboldened. He can rebuild. He has gone through it and come out the other side," he added.Mr Mitchell did not attend the meeting but was due to talk to its executive later.Earlier, senior Coalition ministers were said to be "beyond despair" at Mr Mitchell, whose rant four weeks ago against a policewoman on duty in Downing Street continues to provoke controversy, despite David Cameron's attempt to draw a line under the matter.At the first Prime Minister's Questions since the incident, the Labour leader sought to crank up the pressure on the Chief Whip, who was sitting stony-faced beside the Prime Minister. He argued the Mitchell affair showed how it was one rule for the privileged Tory elite and another rule for everyone else.Mr Miliband told MPs: "If a yob in a city centre on a Saturday night abused a police officer, ranting and raving, the chances are they would be arrested and placed in the back of a police car and rightly so. The Prime Minister would be the first in the queue to say it was right but while it's a night in the cell for the yobs, it's a night in the Carlton Club for the Chief Whip. Isn't that the clearest case there could be of total double standards?"Mr Cameron replied by insisting the Labour leader was focusing on the row about the Chief Whip "because he has nothing to say about the country".As Mr Mitchell appeared increasingly uncomfortable, at one point he seemed to deny having sworn at police, shaking his head and mouthing: "I didn't, I didn't."

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Mitchell clinging on to Cabinet post

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