Man Dies Sleeping Rough In Cold For Documentary

A young documentary maker has been found dead while sleeping rough in freezing temperatures to highlight the plight of the homeless.

Lee Halpin, 26, had planned to spend a week living on the streets in his home city of Newcastle.

He began the project on Sunday but was apparently found dead three days later in a derelict building in the West End of the city.

How he died has not yet been confirmed but it is believed he may have died from hypothermia.

Speaking earlier on a YouTube video, he said the project was part of an application for an investigative journalism course to give an example of fearless reporting.

He said he had spoken to a homeless charity about the rise in the number of people on the streets and the possible repercussions of the bedroom tax.

"I'm about to go and spend a week being homeless in the West End of Newcastle.

"I will sleep rough for a week, scrounge for my food, access the services that other homeless individuals use," he said.

"I will interact with as many homeless people as possible and immerse myself in that lifestyle as deeply as I can."

He concluded the video by saying he hoped it showed his willingness to get to the heart of a story.

Mr Halpin's friend Daniel Lake told the Evening Chronicle: "No-one knows how he passed away, but we think it could have been hypothermia.

"He made the ultimate sacrifice trying to raise awareness about what was happening to other people."

A statement from Northumbria Police said: "Officers have arrested two men aged 26 and 30 on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of a controlled drug. They have been bailed pending further enquiries. A report is being prepared for the coroner into the death of the man."

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London Shooting: Man Charged With Murder

A man has been charged with the murder of a teenager who was shot in the chest in north London, Scotland Yard has said.

Mohammed Hussein, 19, died in Edmonton on Monday after neighbours heard shouting in the street and then gunfire about an hour later.

Paramedics fought to save him but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Natneal Tefsay, 20, from Bounds Green, north London, is charged with Mr Hussein's murder.

He will appear at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court today.

After the shooting, a witness, who did not want to be named, said: "Earlier in the night a group of guys chased after the victim, who was in a car with a mate, and smashed a window.

"He then came back later and that's when the shooting happened.

"He was with three of his friends and I think they ran off when he was shot."

A post-mortem examination found that Mr Hussein died from a single gunshot wound to the chest.

Last night police said they had also arrested a 19-year-old man on suspicion of murder.

They are continuing to appeal for information about the shooting, which happened in Bounces Road, Edmonton, at around 9.45pm on Easter Monday.

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Hospital Patients Should Be Offered Nicotine Gum

Hospital patients who smoke should be given nicotine patches or gum as soon as they are admitted, health officials have said.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) said hospitals have a duty of care to help people quit the habit.

In its new draft recommendations, Nice also called on all hospitals to implement smoke-free policies in their grounds.

In some trusts around the country, patients can be seen outside buildings wearing hospital gowns while smoking - meanwhile other hospitals have zero tolerance policy.

In the new guidance, which is now open for consultation, Nice says that such a policy should be implemented across England.

It is also calling on trusts to give all patients information about their smoke-free rules and support to help smokers kick the habit.

Professor Mike Kelly, director of Nice's Centre for Public Health, said: "The benefits of stopping smoking are well known, and people are already required by law not to smoke inside enclosed or mostly enclosed buildings.

"This draft guidance sets out proposals on supporting people in a hospital environment not to smoke, as well as supporting the smoke-free policies in hospitals.

"Secondary care providers have a responsibility to protect the health of people who use or work in their services.

"The draft recommendations propose that this duty of care should also routinely cover providing advice on how to improve health, including stop smoking interventions."

Treating smoking-related illness costs the NHS £2.7bn every year.

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HBOS Bank Bosses Life-Ban Call In Report

Exclusive: Ex-HBOS Banker Gets Ban

Updated: 8:00pm UK, Wednesday 12 September 2012

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

One of the former executives who led HBOS to the brink of collapse in 2008 is to be hit with a massive fine and a lifetime ban from the industry, I can exclusively reveal.

Peter Cummings, the head of corporate lending at HBOS until its rescue by Lloyds TSB, is to be fined £500,000 by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) following a long-running investigation into his stewardship of the bank's vast balance sheet.

I am told that the City regulator plans to disclose the details of its probe tomorrow morning, although it is conceivable that a statement will be made this evening.

Mr Cummings was well-known in the City for leading the aggressive growth of HBOS' corporate lending activities, counting Sir Philip Green, the Top Shop billionaire, and Mike Ashley, the Sports Direct tycoon, among his most important clients.

He also presided over HBOS' acquisition of shareholdings in prominent businesses such as McCarthy & Stone, the retirement home-builder, and David Lloyd Leisure, the health and fitness club operator.

Since HBOS' rescue by Lloyds, the enlarged group's share price has tumbled, leaving taxpayers nursing a multi-billion pound paper loss.

In a statement in March, the FSA confirmed that it had been conducting an enforcement investigation into HBOS, saying that the bank "was guilty of very serious misconduct, which contributed to the circumstances that led to the UK government having to inject taxpayer funding into HBOS."

The lender, now part of Lloyds Banking Group - which is 41% owned by British taxpayers - escaped a fine from the regulator because (in the FSA's words) "public funds have already been called on to address the consequences of Bank of Scotland's misconduct, levying a penalty on the enlarged Group means the taxpayer would effectively pay twice for the same actions committed by the firm."

In the same statement, the FSA detailed a litany of failings at HBOS between 2006 and the early part of 2008.

"Between January 2006 and March 2008, Bank of Scotland's Corporate Division pursued an aggressive growth strategy that focused on high-risk, sub-investment grade lending."

Over the period, the division's transactions increased in size, complexity and risk.

Its portfolio was high risk with highly concentrated exposures to property and to significant large borrowers.

This strategy was highly vulnerable to a downturn in the economic cycle, yet the Corporate Division continued with the strategy even as markets began to worsen in 2007.

Rather than re-evaluating its business as conditions worsened, the division set out to increase its market share as other lenders started to pull out of the market.

In addition, its internal culture was focused on revenue rather than assessing the level of risk in transactions.

Bank of Scotland did not have systems and controls that were appropriate to the high level of risks that its Corporate Division was taking on.

And there were serious deficiencies in Bank of Scotland's control framework which provided insufficient challenge to the Corporate Division's strategy; the framework for managing credit risk across the portfolio; the distribution framework which did not operate effectively in reducing the risks in the portfolio; and the process for identifying and managing transactions that showed signs of stress.

From April 2008, as it became apparent that high value transactions were demonstrating signs of stress, it should have been apparent to Bank of Scotland that a more prudent approach was needed to mitigate risk, yet it was slow to move such transactions to its High Risk area within its Corporate Division.

There was a significant risk that this would have an impact on the firm's capital requirements.

It also meant the full extent of the stress within the corporate portfolio was not visible to the Group's Board or auditors.

In addition, while the firm's auditors agreed that the overall level of the firm's provisioning was acceptable, in relation to the Corporate Division provisions were consistently made at the optimistic rather than prudent end of the acceptable range, despite warnings from the divisional risk function and Bank of Scotland's auditors."

The fine for Mr Cummings is the latest in a string of punishments meted out by the City regulator in recent times.

The FSA was itself criticised strongly, not only for its lax supervision of Britain's biggest banks, but also for failing to anticipate the public and political appetite for a full report on the reasons for their collapse.

Last December, the FSA produced such a report on the failure of RBS, but said it would not begin a corresponding piece of work on HBOS' collapse until enforcement proceedings had been completed.

Assuming no other former HBOS executives will be subject to such actions, the fine for Mr Cummings is likely to mean that work will begin shortly.

The regulator is expected to face further questions about whether Mr Cummings has been made a scapegoat for HBOS' failure.

Andy Hornby, the ex-HBOS chief executive, and Lord Stevenson, its former chairman, were at the helm at the time the bank had to be bailed out.

There is no suggestion that any of Mr Cummings' actions or lending decision were unauthorised.

The FSA supervised the rapid expansion of HBOS' balance sheet during the economic boom years but, by its own admission, did nothing to curtail it.

There is also likely to be scepticism about the FSA's decision to hand Mr Cummings a lifetime ban from the banking sector because he has already retired.

The regulator was similarly criticised at RBS for pronouncing no sanction against Fred Goodwin, the bank's former chief executive, but instead pursuing Johnny Cameron, who ran its investment banking arm but was widely felt to have been unjustly singled-out.

The FSA declined to comment on Wednesday, while Mr Cummings could not be reached for comment.

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Pakistan Aid 'Should Be Linked To Taxes On Rich'

Britain should withhold extra aid to Pakistan unless the country boosts the amount of tax it collects from its own elite, a group of MPs has said.

Pakistan will become the largest recipient of UK aid next year, a controversial move given the backdrop of corruption, tax avoidance and political instability.

And members of the Commons International Development select committee said British taxpayers must not be left to foot the growing bill unless Pakistan's wealthy are made to pay their fair share.

"Any increase in the UK's official development assistance to Pakistan must be conditional on Pakistan increasing its tax collection and widening the tax base," its report states.

"We cannot expect the people in the UK to pay taxes to improve education and health in Pakistan if the Pakistan elite is not paying income tax.

Many of Pakistan's rich pay no taxes as millions live in slums

"In the past, donor money has not been spent effectively in Pakistan for a variety of reasons. Corruption is rife in a social order based on patronage and kinship networks.

"Pakistan's rich do not pay taxes and exhibit little interest in improving conditions and opportunities for Pakistan's poor."

The Government plans to increase its  £267m bilateral aid programme in Pakistan, which has one of the smallest tax bases in the world, for the financial year that ends today to £446m in 2014/15.

During their inquiry MPs were told that while one in three people in Pakistan live on less than 30p a day around 70% of the nation's MPs do not file a tax return.

The committee indicated it wants Prime Minister David Cameron to push for action on corruption and tax evasion with Pakistan's leadership.

It also called for the Government to use its influence within the International Monetary Fund to press for urgent reform of the tax system.

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Hate Crime: Goths, Punks And Emos Recognised

By Rhiannon Mills, Sky News Reporter

Greater Manchester Police have become the first in the country to officially recognise hate crimes against goths, emos, punks and metallers.

Attacks on those who belong to alternative subcultures will now be recorded as a crime by GMP in the same way as disability, racist, religious, sexual orientation and transgender hate crime to provide better support to victims and repeat victims.

The move is a response to the 2007 killing of Sophie Lancaster, who was attacked by a mob for being a goth.

Aged 20, she and her boyfriend, Robert Maltby, were brutally beaten as they walked home through Stubbylee Park in Bacup.

She suffered horrific head injuries after she was repeatedly stamped on and kicked in the head.

Miss Lancaster died in 2007

Mr Maltby survived the attack, but Miss Lancaster never regained consciousness.

Her killers were sentenced in 2008 and the judge recognised her death as a hate crime because they were targeted for being goths.

Her parents set up the Sophie Lancaster Foundation to create respect and understanding of subcultures.

The charity works with police forces and politicians to ensure individuals who are part of subcultures are protected by the law.

Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan, GMP's lead on hate crime, said: "The launch of this new strand of recordable hate crime is a major breakthrough.

"We are able to officially recognise that people who wish to express their alternative subculture identity freely should not have to tolerate hate crime - something that many people have to endure on a daily basis.

"Sophie's tragic death brought forward a need to recognise that there are many other victims of hate crime that should be protected by law.

"While we have worked with the foundation for some time, I am proud to say we are now the first force in the country to officially record alternative subculture as a sixth strand of hate crime motivation."

Mr Maltby was also brutally beaten in the 2007 attack

Sophie's mum Sylvia Lancaster said: "It is a very proud day for me personally and the rest of the team.

"It is a validation of the work we have undertaken in the past five years and hopefully other forces will follow GMP's lead.

"A big thank you to Greater Manchester Police and all our supporters."

Further work will also be carried out to educate communities and officers will be trained so they are able to provide support for individuals and victims of hate crime who are part of an alternative subculture community.

Greater Manchester Police say they recognise "alternative subculture" as a broad term to define a strong sense of collective identity and a set of group-specific values and tastes.

This typically centres on distinctive style, clothing, make-up, body art and music preference.

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Fans' Plea To FA Over Homophobic Chants

Fans of Brighton and Hove Albion have appealed for action to tackle homophobic abuse which they say is levelled at them by opposition supporters because of the city's large gay community.

Together with the Gay Football Supporters' Network (GSFN), they have compiled and filed a report to the Football Association detailing evidence and a log of the level of homophobic chanting at both home and away matches.

It also highlights two instances of opposition players making homophobic gestures at supporters in the terraces.

On one occasion, the language used by opposition fans was so bad that a radio station was forced to turn off a microphone and apologise several times on air, the report said.

It said fans have been subjected to homophobic abuse by at least 72% of opponents they have faced this season, in at least 70% of away games and in at least 57% of all their fixtures so far.

It said the chants varied from "fairly mild" and "more unpleasant", to those meant as a "joke", and others "as terms of abuse".

"It is the view of the Brighton and Hove Albion Supporters' Club and GFSN that neither is acceptable," it said.

"For us it is really simple. If the words relating to a person's sexuality were replaced with words relating to someone's race or skin colour, would those chants be acceptable? In all these cases they would not and appropriate action would be taken."

Sarah Watts, Brighton and Hove Albion Supporters' Club secretary, said: " Brighton fans have been the subject of 'banter' about the city's gay community for as long as many of our fans can remember.

"We hope this report will increase public awareness and help educate our fellow members of the football family of the issues faced, to address them and, ultimately the need to treat each other with basic respect."

Chris Basiurski, GSFN chairman, said: "This report clearly shows the shocking extent of the abuse to which Brighton supporters are subjected on a regular basis.

"It is not acceptable and we call on the football authorities to do more to eradicate homophobia from the terraces."

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Derby Fire: Philpotts Face Jail Over Deaths

A couple who killed their six children in a house fire are due to be jailed, after both were convicted of manslaughter.

Mick and Mairead Philpott triggered the blaze at their Derby home in the early hours of May 11 last year in a bid to frame Lisa Willis, Philpott's former girlfriend.

Philpott was fighting a custody battle with Miss Willis, who had lived with the couple and slept with Philpott on alternate nights while living at the house.

Both women were said to have lived happily with one another for a decade but Miss Willis left Philpott three months before the deadly fire taking her five children, four of whom were fathered by him.

Jade Philpott, 10, and her brothers John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six, Jayden, five, and Duwayne, 13 - all died as a result of the petrol-fuelled blaze that tore through their three-bed council house in Victory Road.

Jurors at Nottingham Crown Court returned guilty verdicts on manslaughter charges for the pair and co-defendant Paul Mosley, 46, after an eight-week trial.

Many sobbed and hugged one another while Mairead Philpott's sister, Bernadette Duffy, clapped her hands and shouted out: "You murdering b*******.

"You heard me. I told you didn't I?"

Back (L-R) Duwayne and John, Front (L-R) Jack, Jessie, Jade and Jayden

Mick Philpott, 56, stood in the dock staring straight ahead with his hands clasped in front of him as the verdicts were delivered.

He shook his head and his wife looked down at the floor and fought back tears while clutching a tissue in both her hands.

Before leaving the dock Philpott crossed himself and was heard to say: "It's not over yet."

During his evidence he appeared emotional and slumped forward sobbing in the witness box as the court was played the frantic 999 call he and his wife made on the night of the fire.

The trio had planned to get all six children into one bedroom at the back of the house so Philpott could play the hero and rescue them with a ladder stationed in preparation.

Mick Philpott tried to frame his former partner over the blaze

He had previously told police that Miss Willis was harassing him and had threatened the family.

The fire was far bigger than the trio expected and unemployed Philpott - father of 17 children from five women - climbed up a ladder at the back of the house to discover he was unable to smash a large enough hole in the bedroom window.

Firefighters found the youngsters' lifeless bodies in each of the three upstairs bedrooms.

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Cashpoint Explosion: CCTV Of Thieves' Attack

Thieves used explosives to blow up a Hampshire petrol station's cashpoint in an attack captured on CCTV.

Police issued a warning after the blast at the Texaco in Weyhill, which they say mirrors similar raids on cash machines in mainland Europe.

Officers were called after a resident reported hearing a loud bang in the early hours of Sunday.

Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Murray said they found the cashpoint on the forecourt blown open and money from inside stolen.

"Although this was a relatively contained explosion and fortunately no-one was injured, the unpredictable nature of this type of offence means we could easily have been dealing with serious injury or death," he said.

"Our priority is to keep the public safe and by showing this CCTV footage, we hope it highlights how potentially dangerous an explosion of this type can be.

"We are aware of crimes of this nature occurring in mainland Europe which have had serious consequences and our advice to anyone using a cashpoint is to be extremely vigilant of any suspicious activity nearby.

"If you notice anything unusual, or see any wires or cables running from the machine, do not attempt to touch it and call the police immediately."

He said detectives were following up a number of enquiries and appealed for anyone with information that may assist the investigation to contact police.

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Windermere Lake Deaths: Woman And Girl Die

A 36-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl have died and a man is being treated in hospital after they suffered breathing difficulties on a boat.

The alarm was raised at around 4pm when Cumbria Police and an ambulance were called to a private vessel at a jetty on Lake Windermere in the Lake District.

The woman and young girl, both from the Leyland area of Lancashire, were treated at the scene and then airlifted to Royal Lancaster Infirmary, where both later died.

The man, who was also on the boat near Bowness, was taken to the same hospital where he is still receiving treatment, Cumbria Police said.

Officers said they were unable to confirm reports that the deaths were the result of carbon monoxide poisoning.

A Cumbria Police spokeswoman said: "(We) can confirm that at approximately 4pm today, they attended an incident at Lake Windermere, where it was reported that three people on a private boat on Lake Windermere were having serious breathing difficulties.

"Police attended along with an ambulance crew.

"A 36-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl, both from the Leyland area, were treated at the scene and then airlifted to Royal Lancaster Infirmary. Unfortunately both have since tragically died.

"A man, who was also on the boat, is still receiving treatment at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary."

The spokeswoman continued: "Police are currently investigating the circumstances of this tragic incident and trying to establish the full facts about what has happened. The coroner has been informed."

The unfolding incident, at a jetty near Bowness, was witnessed by Dragon's Den star Duncan Bannatyne who posted a photograph of the scene on his Twitter account, saying: "Tragic accident over there I am afraid."

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Hospitals Could 'Grind To Halt' In Shake-Up

Health experts have warned that NHS is "not ready" for the raft of changes implemented under the controversial health reforms - which come into effect today.

The Health and Social Care Act, which became law after a tortuous passage through Parliament, is expected to cost the taxpayer between £1.5bn and £1.6bn to implement.

Nick Black, professor of health service research at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said that he did not believe the health service was prepared for such a huge structural change.

He warned that hospitals could "grind to a halt" as cuts to social care budgets mean that doctors are unable to discharge patients who do not need to be on the wards.

And Labour said that the reforms have exposed the health service to risk because they have been implemented during a time of huge financial pressure.

When asked whether the NHS is ready for such a big change, Prof Black said: "Not really no. It could really do without this.

"What we have got at the moment is a perfect storm with three major things happening - the changes in the structure, the fall out from Francis and the Nicholson challenge (where the NHS has been tasked with making £20bn in efficiency savings during the four years to 2015).

"At one level patients won't notice anything dramatic on Monday morning. But the biggest thing that patients will notice will be the knock-on effect from the cuts in social care funding.

"It is clear that our hospitals are already struggling to discharge patients. One manager who I spoke to last week said that 100 beds in his hospitals could be discharged if there was the care in the community.

"Hospitals could cease to function and the system could grind to a halt because of people who do not need to be there."

The main aim of the health reforms was to make the NHS more accountable to patients and to release frontline staff from excessive bureaucracy and top-down control.

One of the biggest changes is the move from primary care trusts (PCTs) to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), which will be led by GPs and other clinicians who will take on responsibility for commissioning care. The move will see 211 CCGs replace 151 PCTs across England.

But last week it was announced that only half of of the new CCGs will be fully ready to start work when the changes come into effect .

However, the Department of Health said that for the first time health and social care services will be "designed around the needs of the local community".

Health Minister Lord Howe said: "From April 1 local nurses and doctors, who best know what their patients need will have the power, freedom and budget to decide what care and services are best for their local communities and how taxpayers' money is spent.

"Patients will be able to choose who provides their care so everyday health checks like hearing and blood tests can be carried out at a time and place convenient for them, such as at a pharmacy on the high street instead of a hospital.

"Health and care services will be better joined up by bringing together the NHS, local councils and patients. Patients will have a greater influence in changes to their local health and care services through the patient led inspections and the friends and family test.

"Through these changes, the health service will improve, work smarter and, importantly, build an NHS that delivers high quality, compassionate care for patients."

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Welfare Reforms 'Will Make Benefits Fairer'

The Government is beginning the biggest shake-up in the history of the Welfare State with the introduction of a raft of reforms which it says will make the benefits system "fairer".

Chancellor George Osborne and Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith have dismissed criticism that they say make the shake-up sound like "the beginning of the end of the world".

They launched their fightback as 660,000 social housing tenants with a spare room began to lose an average £14 a week in what critics have dubbed a "bedroom tax".

It is part of a package of welfare and tax changes coming into force this month which critics claim will hit poor families and the disabled especially hard.

Changes to council tax benefit will see bills for an estimated 2.4 million households rise an average £138 a year with two million paying for the first time, an anti-poverty group said.

The system has been handed to town halls to operate from today but with 10% less funding.

On April 6, working-age benefits and tax credits will be cut in real terms with the first of three years of maximum 1% rises - well below the present rate of inflation.

On April 8, disability living allowance begins to be replaced by the personal independence payment (PIP), which charities say will remove support from many in real need.

And later in the month, trials begin in four London boroughs of a £500-a-week cap on any household's benefits and of the new Universal Credit system.

George Osborne says the benefits system will now be 'fairer' for all

Pilot schemes for the flagship scheme have been scaled back amid reports - denied by welfare officials - that IT problems have derailed preparations for its rollout from October.

Labour claims the impact of the measures and other coalition policies have left the average family almost £900 a year worse off.

A coalition of churches yesterday said vulnerable people were paying a "disproportionate price" for the Government's austerity drive and attacked its whole approach.

Writing in the Telegraph today, Mr Osborne and Mr Duncan Smith said: "Our changes will ensure that the welfare state offers the right help to those who need it, and is fair to those who pay for it."

Ending what ministers call a "spare room subsidy" would address the "scandal" of a million people living in overcrowded conditions and millions more on waiting lists, they said.

The three-year, real-terms cut was a hard but "necessary" decision to save the taxpayer £2bn a year as part of austerity deficit-reduction measures, they wrote.

And raising the personal income tax allowance to £10,000 in two phases starting at the start of the financial year on Saturday was "the biggest tax cut in a generation".

"What we're doing this coming week is making welfare fairer, helping to create jobs, and making sure you can keep more of what you earn."

Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps faced scorn yesterday after using the fact that his own two sons shared a room in justifying the "common sense" spare room crackdown.

Mr Shapps has defended his plans for children to share bedrooms

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Shapps said: "It is wrong to leave people out in the cold with effectively no roof over their heads because the taxpayer is paying for rooms which aren't in use. It's just a common-sense reform which in the end will help house more people.

"People share rooms quite commonly - my boys share a room."

Sky's political correspondent Sophy Ridge said his comments provoked jibes and criticism from Labour MPs and others on Twitter.

"The problem is the debate over welfare has become so politically charged, emotional even, that some Labour MPs are saying it is not appropriate for Mr Shapps, who is a millionaire, to compare themselves with people on low paid jobs for instance," she said.

Labour said freedom of information responses showed local councils had sufficient one and two bedroom properties to house only one in 20 of those families with spare rooms.

Responses from 37 authorities across Britain revealed 96,041 households faced losing benefit but there were only 3,688 smaller homes available.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne said: "These shocking new figures reveal the big lie behind this Government's cruel bedroom tax.

"They say it's not a tax but 96% of people have nowhere to move to. In the same week that millionaires get a huge tax cut, hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people will be hit by a vicious tax they can't escape.

"This wicked bedroom tax is going to rip neighbour from neighbour, force vulnerable people to food banks and loan sharks, and end up costing Britain more than it saves as tenants are forced to go homeless or move into the expensive private rented sector."

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Plebgate: Mitchell's Scotland Yard Complaint

Ex-cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell has lodged a formal complaint against Scotland Yard over the apparent leaking of its report into the "Plebgate" affair.

The senior Tory MP has written to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) accusing the Metropolitan Police of a continued campaign to "destroy" his career.

Mr Mitchell took the action after newspaper reports suggested a police file passed to the Crown Prosecution Service contained no evidence that officers lied about his behaviour.

He strongly denies calling officers "plebs" during an altercation over their refusal to allow him to ride his bike through the Downing Street gates last year.

And the politician - who quit as chief whip amid the storm over the incident - claims he is the victim of a conspiracy by officers to "toxify" the Tories and blacken his name.

In a letter to IPCC deputy chairman Deborah Glass, he wrote: "We are deeply dismayed that the Metropolitan Police appear to have leaked part of their Report prepared for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to certain members of the Press and spun it to the advantage of the Police officers involved.

"This was an Enquiry into a dishonest and illicit attempt to blacken my name and destroy my career. It would appear that this police enquiry continues precisely that process."

Keith Vaz, Labour chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, said the latest development showed it was wrong for Scotland Yard to lead the inquiry into its own officers and called for the whole investigation to be taken over by the IPCC.

Scotland Yard is trying to find out how the Sun and Daily Telegraph obtained information about the "Plebgate" row and if it came from police.

It is also looking at a police officer's claim to have witnessed the altercation and allegations by Mr Mitchell that police had lied in a log of the event.

Three officers from the Diplomatic Protection Group have so far been arrested as part of the investigation. All three remain suspended.

Some 30 detectives have taken statements from all 800 officers in the DPG, which is tasked with protecting government officials.

Papers related to the case were passed to prosecutors on Thursday, but the CPS said it was not "a full file of evidence" and that is expected more.

"We now await the conclusion of the police investigation before considering charges," it said in what was seen as a rebuke to the force.

A number of newspapers subsequently reported sources as saying the file did not contain any evidence to back Mr Mitchell's claim of a conspiracy by officers.

Mr Vaz said the committee had argued from the start that Met Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan Howe was wrong to allow Scotland Yard to conduct the investigation.

Britain's most senior police officer promised a "ruthless" investigation into the alleged conspiracy "no matter where the truth takes us".

It is being supervised by the IPCC and the commissioner invited the Greater Manchester force to provide an external review.

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Richard III: Legal Row Over Leicester Burial

By David Crabtree, Midlands Correspondent

A legal challenge is under way over where the 500-year-old remains of King Richard III should be finally laid to rest.

The bones of the king were discovered under a council car park in Leicester, which was built over a long-demolished friary.

A plan for the last Plantagenet King to be buried in the city's St Martin's Cathedral, only 500 yards away is well advanced.

King Richard III's remains unearthed by archaeologists

But a group called the Plantagenet Alliance, claiming to be the Yorkist King's descendants, has asked lawyers to challenge the process under which the exhumation was carried out by Leicester University.

They say that his remains should be buried in York.

An application for a judicial review is to be lodged. They are bringing the action against the Ministry of Justice, which granted the excavation licence, and is being launched under article 8 of the European Convention, which guarantees the right to a private and family life.

The skull of King Richard III

Leicester's mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby, said: "We have had a number of rather silly suggestions, but the particular one that a king who has been buried for 500 years has a human right to a family life is to put it mildly rather daft."

The remarkable discovery in the centre of Leicester has led to a 20-fold increase in tourism.

There are daily queues outside a Richard III exhibition and the council has plans to redesign the area around the cathedral before holding an "extraordinary event" to reinter the last English king to die in battle.

Richard III was born in Northamptonshire but grew up in Yorkshire and was called Richard of York before he took to the throne. He died in the Battle of Bosworth outside Leicester in 1485.

The Leicester car park under which the king's remains lay

The Rev Canon David Monteith, Dean-Elect of Leicester, said: "We are working together to plan for a reinterment, hopefully in the spring of 2014.

"We are working flat out to make sure that is going to be an extraordinary event. We are going to make history that day and the whole world is going to be watching Leicester.

"We are here to serve the whole people of the community and Richard's arrival here with us, enables us to do that better.

St Martin's Cathedral, Leicester, where King Richard III is to be buried

"We have looked at him, he has looked at us for the last five hundred years.

"As it were we are now becoming more acquainted and we are really looking forward to him being reinterred here in the heart of the cathedral."

Those in Leicester are confident of fighting off any legal challenges. They are hoping that a senior member of the Royal Family will attend the event in spring next year.

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