Michael Portillo withdraws Andrew Mitchell ‘pleb’ claim

Michael Portillo has withdrawn a claim he heard Andrew Mitchell use the word “pleb” in private claiming he got “carried away”.

In a live television discussion about the so-called “Plebgate” row, the Tory former Cabinet minister declared: “I have heard him use that word in private conversation the pleb word, I mean.”

That appeared to contradict Mr Mitchell’s insistence at the height of the controversy over his row with Downing Street police officers that it was not the sort of word he would use.

Pressed on whether he had heard him use the word, Mr Portillo, who served with Mr Mitchell in John Major’s Conservative government, said: “I think I did but not in a bad context.”

However, the former politician, a regular pundit on the show, now says he has no recollection of hearing the word pass the lips of his ex-colleague.

“I seem to have misspoken,” he said.