Andrew Mitchell lives to thrash his way through another day

Andrew Mitchell spent the whole of Home Office questions on the front bench, nodding sagely as both Damian Green and Theresa May were repeatedly asked to condemn his behaviour outside the Downing Street gates, which they repeatedly refused to do. He was joined in his nodding routine by Andrew Lansley, who knows a little about being hauled over coals by the opposition himself.

Throughout the session, there was a low rumble of barracking from the benches. When the first question about the chief whip came from Catherine McKinnell – who asked what the impact was ‘of a cabinet member verbally abusing a police officer at a time of record frontline cuts to police officers up and down the country’ – one Labour MP shouted ‘get the whips out!’ Shadow Home Office Minister Chris Bryant continued sledging throughout other questions on metal theft and hate crime, shouting ‘what did he say?’ while pointing at Mitchell.