Yvette Cooper MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, on today’s Home Affairs Select Committee hearing, said:

“The Select Committee’s hearings have revealed that the investigation process over the meeting with Andrew Mitchell has been a total mess.

"It is essential that the case is independently redetermined. But it is also clear that the entire system needs to be reformed. The IPCC didn’t have the resources to do an independent investigation and didn’t believe it had the powers to direct conclusions.

"We have argued for some time that the whole framework of standards, investigations and complaints should be reformed with a new powerful Police Standards Authority. Lord Stevens’s review will set out major reforms in this area. The evidence today shows just how confused the current system is.

"Andrew Mitchell has already waited too long for the result of these investigations and we are still waiting for the CPS decision over the events in Downing Street. These events are also casting a long shadow over the vital and much valued work police officers do across the country. We need rapid action and leadership to sort this out.”