The police whistle-blower who contacted The Sun over allegations Andrew Mitchell called Downing Street security “plebs” has told the paper he has “no regrets” despite being sacked, leaving him thousands of pounds in debt. Former Police Constable Jim Glanville was accused of gross misconduct by the Metropolitan Police for exposing Mitchell, who was Chief Whip at the time.
Mitchell effectively lost a libel action brought by PC Toby Rowlands on Friday, because the Judge ruled “on the balance of probabilities” he did call Diplomat Protection PCs “plebs”.
But the whole incident is unlikely to have come to light had it not been for the Glanville. He requested a copy of the police log of the incident from PC Gill Weatherley, who initially refused to allow Mitchell through the gates of Downing Street in September 2012. Glanville then used this as the basis of a leak to The Sun.
Both Weatherley and Glanville were arrested and later sacked. The Sun refused to tell the Police who their source was, so instead the Metropolitan Police used anti-terror legislation to access the phone records of political editor Tom Newton-Dunn.
Since the incident Glanville has gone through a divorce, had his reputation ruined and is now in £13,000 of debt. At one stage Mitchell was winning in the court of public opinion after two police officers were accused of pretending to be members of the public who witnessed the incident despite not being there.
Glanville told today’s Sun: “I’d do it all again tomorrow. I have no regrets about coming forward. I thought the public deserved to know how someone that senior in the Government behaved.”
He continued: “I was incensed by what Andrew Mitchell had said and I knew it would get covered up. Nobody was going to do anything about it. The Met’s hierarchy are always more afraid of upsetting politicians than looking after their own.
“I knew what I was doing. It was my decision and I didn’t involve anyone else. I went to a quiet place and picked up the phone. We’re stood there 24/7 in all weathers to protect these people.
“Why should we put our lives on the line if that’s the sort of respect someone like Mitchell has for us? To talk like that just after two female colleagues had been blown to pieces in Manchester was appalling.”
Glanville expressed his sadness that Gill Weatherley had also been sacked, as he claimed she did not know he was going to leak the log she sent him. He has got a new job after a difficult period and says he would never return to policing after the way he was treated.
He refused to go to his disciplinary hearing after Andrew Mitchell was also invited. Glanville claimed he did this to deny the former Chief Whip the satisfaction of seeing his face when he was fired.
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