Police leaders call for Prime Minister David Cameron to sack Andrew Mitchell Yesterday the flames were further fanned when a former Tory Cabinet minister, accused the officers of taking bribes from journalists for the story. Speaking on Murnaghan on Sky News, David Mellor, who served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in John Major's government, said: "A police officer tipped off The Sun and probably received money for doing so." Mr Tully, who as chair of the Met Federation represents thousands of rank and file officers across the capital, called such suggestions "outrageous" He said: "On Friday I called for Andrew Mitchell to resign, but now I think it is time for the Prime Minister to take action and sack him. Mr Mitchell apologised to the officers but in the same breath denied using the words. He has now changed his position and admitted the swear words, which is itself serious. If a member of the public swore at a police officer in the street, they would be liable to arrest. But the more serious point is that he has effectively denied anything untoward, other than being a bit unpleasant. For me he has lied to protect his position. He lied in the first place when he denied he had used the words reported. He added: "If Mr Mitchell had simply accepted what he had said and apologised we could have moved on. But the officers, who have acted very professionally throughout all of this, are very distressed. They dealt with the incident, which was unusual, they recorded it in their notebooks and reported it to their line manager As far as they were concerned that was it. They went off duty that day, thinking 'that was interesting', but it is finished. But now they are faced with accusations that they have lied. They have also been accused today of taking money from the Sun newspaper for this information which is an absolutely outrageous suggestion. Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Home Secretary, has written to Jeremy Heywood, the Cabinet Secretary, calling on Downing Street to clear up the ongoing mystery of what was actually said by releasing a full transcript of the exchange. Ms Cooper said: "From the reports we have seen it appears that either the Chief Whip used very offensive language to dismiss an officer on duty and has not told the public the full story. Or alternatively Mr Mitchell and Prime Minister are saying the testimony of police officers who protect Downing Street cannot be trusted or should be ignored. Either of those alternatives are extremely serious which is why this needs to be fully investigated. David Cameron cannot dismiss this incident and hope it goes away. But Mr Mitchell enjoyed some support from a member of his own party, who told the BBC he was "proud to be a pleb." Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, said Mr Mitchell's apology should draw a line under the issue. He said: "I am not defending in any way the fact that Mr Andrew Mitchell lost his temper with police officers. I'm not a public schoolboy, I'm not a millionaire, and there are plenty of people sat around that table who don't belong to either. But I think we should move away from this sort of class-ridden critique. Here we had a guy on his bicycle who lost his rag. Now whether this guy was a millionaire or not a millionaire, he shouldn't have lost his rag. I think that Mr Andrew Mitchell feels embarrassed. And I do genuinely believe in the power of forgiveness and for someone to be able to apologise and to be able to move on. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg also said Mr Mitchell's conduct had been "very wrong," but said his Conservative colleague's apology was enough.