G20 officer says he didn't mean to mislead MPs

One of the Met's top officers was forced to apologise today for giving false information to MPs about the deployment of undercover officers.

Commander Bob Broadhurst told the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee last May that no plain clothes officers had been deployed during the G20 protests the previous month.

Today, however, he admitted that his statement had been incorrect and that undercover officers had been present during the protests.

Mr Broadhurst insisted that he had given the inaccurate information in good faith and had not known at the time about the presence of his plain clothes colleagues.

His admission will heighten concern about the control exercised over the activities of undercover officers following the controversy over Met officer Mark Kennedy, who spied on environmental activists.