A friend and parliamentary colleague of the the former chief whip Andrew Mitchell has questioned the way the affair surrounding his resignation was reported, adding there was an issue with information being passed from the police to the media.

"How does a thrupenny ha'penny row on a Wednesday night end up splashed across the front of The Sun on Friday morning?" Conservative MP Crispin Blunt asked Today presenter Evan Davis. "Something inappropriate and improper has happened there."

And he added: "I know the statements attributed to him do not feel right".

But Insp Ken Mackaill, chairman of the West Mercia Police Federation, which represents officers in Mr Mitchell's constituency, said the MP "will not tell us what he actually said... We don't have two accounts on which to judge the accuracy of what happened."

"We're not intent on giving the government a bloody nose," he insisted, and that the federation "cannot have an unresolved challenge to the integrity" of police notes.

"If they are wrong, let's get to the bottom of it".

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