Senior Scotland Yard officers were meeting Hoyle in person on Wednesday afternoon to explain their error, which is regarded internally as a serious breach of protocol.

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An official custody document shared with Mandelson’s lawyers is understood to have referred to the Lords speaker as the source of the information – a mistaken reference to Hoyle, the Commons speaker.

After the Lords speaker, Michael Forsyth, said it was “entirely false and without foundation” to say he had tipped off police, Hoyle went public with the fact it was him.

Incompetence on top of incompetence. The Met are really putting their best and brightest on this case.