Andrew Mitchell revives Gategate at PMQs as whips worry his power is gone

Andrew Mitchell isn’t going anywhere just yet, even if some of his ministerial colleagues are privately willing for him to face the high jump. But the story about him is still going somewhere because the chief whip apparently decided, quite unwisely, to intervene in the PMQs exchanges about him this lunchtime. But it’s not just cabinet ministers who are grumpy: the other whips are worried too.

Ed Miliband wisely started his questions with the unemployment figures, which meant Cameron’s later accusations that the Labour leader wasn’t interested in the real issues sounded weaker than they perhaps did as the Prime Minister planned them this morning. And he made a neat connection between the jobs and the Mitchell row by talking about cuts to police jobs.

‘Another promise broken, and it’s not just their promises, it’s their conduct as well. This is what the Mayor of London said last year: ‘…if people swear at the police, they must expect to be arrested’.