BRITISH police say they are investigating "extremely serious" allegations that an officer fabricated evidence which led to the resignation of a senior cabinet minister.
The officer is said to have pretended to be a member of the public who saw Andrew Mitchell's verbal exchange with policemen as he was stopped from cycling out of the main gates of Downing Street in September.
But the officer's account was discredited when it emerged he was not at the scene of the altercation, in which it was alleged Mitchell called the policemen "f*****g plebs".
At the weekend an officer was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public office.
Mitchell - who as chief whip was the minister responsible for enforcing discipline in Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party - has always denied calling the police "plebs" but admitted swearing.
He was forced to resign in October.
London's Metropolitan Police vowed to "get to the truth" of allegations after Britain's Channel 4 news showed CCTV footage of the altercation and made the allegations about the policeman pretending to be a member of the public.
"The allegation that a serving police officer fabricated evidence is extremely serious," the Met said in a statement.
It said the claims went to the "very heart" of trust in the police and promised to conduct a "thorough and well-resourced investigation" into whether there had been a "conspiracy".
Cameron's office said the claims that the officer had lied about the incident were "exceptionally serious".
"It is therefore essential that the police get to the bottom of this as a matter of urgency," a Downing Street spokesman said.
Mitchell, a sometimes abrasive character who is believed to have had enemies within the cabinet, has admitted swearing but denied calling the officers "plebs".
Supporters of Mitchell in Cameron's Conservative party questioned how the police officer's account was not questioned earlier.
David Davis, a senior backbencher, said: "How on earth could this have happened? The man wasn't where he said he was, there wasn't the crowd he said was there and his description read like an extract from a police log itself. You have to say, where did this come from?"
The Mitchell row comes against a backdrop of tension between the government and the police over cuts to its funding as part of the drive to cut a record deficit.
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