Andrew Mitchell under pressure to skip Tory party conference over 'pleb row' One Conservative MP said on Wednesday it would be better if Mr Mitchell stayed away if the row was still raging. The MP added that Mr Mitchell's authority now looked so dimished by the "plebgate" affair that they were now hoping that he stayed in his job. Prime Minister David Cameron has so far backed Mr Mitchell, although his Parliamentary aide Sam Gymiah rang round a number of backbench Tory MPs after the scandal broke last Friday to test the mood of the backbenches. Mr Mitchell has blamed "a long and extremely frustrating day" for his comments, adding: "I have apologised to the police, I have apologised to the officer on the gate, and he has accepted my apology, and I hope very much that we can draw a line under it there." But specifically he failed to deny that he called the police "plebs," saying: "I want to make it absolutely clear that I did not say the words attributed to me." Last night Labour urged Mr Mitchell to attend the conference, because of the damage it would cause the Conservatives. Shadow Cabinet Office minister Gareth Thomas MP said: "He should go - his attendance will be a reminder of just how out of touch the current Conservative leadership are and will remind a few delegates why they should have pushed harder for the Tories to modernise themselves when they had the chance in Opposition." The Daily Telegraph published a copy of the police log, detailing the exchange between Mr Mitchell and the officers in Downing Street on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Stephen House, the chief constable of Strathclyde Police who has been appointed to run a national police force, said he thought the note looked "genuine." He admitted that there was a legitimate public interest in the case, adding: "Did it look genuine to me as a police log, did it look like it was genuinely written by police officers immediately after an incident? Yes it did, from my experience. The language, the concerns in it, appeared to be genuine to me. Is there a public interest in understanding the relationship between a senior politician and what happened on the street in Downing Street? I think there is. Rank and file police officers also increased the pressure by protesting outside Mr Mitchell's office in his Sutton Coldfield constituency. The officers, who are members of the Police Federation of England and Wales, wore T-shirts emblazoned with the words "PC Pleb and Proud." Ian Edwards, the chairman of West Midlands branch of the federation, said: "We feel the prime minister has failed to get to the bottom of this matter. It cannot be right that Mr Mitchell can deny making the comments attributed to him, contrary to the police officer's notes, and yet not come out and say what he did say. If he did call police officers plebs, and we have no reason to doubt the integrity of the officers involved, it's just another sign of the disrespect the Conservatives, the once heralded as the party of law and order, show to the police service.