The Downing Street gate guards have dropped yet another clanger: this time the victim of their strict in-out policy was Maria Miller. The Culture Secretary was refused entry to the road leading to Number 10.
Miller was left stamping her feet on the pavement outside as her private secretary tried to persuade policemen that she was who she claimed to be.
The incident was reminiscent, though in reverse, of Andrew Mitchell’s trouble getting out of Downing Street with his bicycle. From that time came the suggestion from the police that he had called them “plebs”, a matter which is still being disputed by both sides.
Miller’s encounter was, at least, polite. A bystander informs The Londoner: “David Cameron was leaving Number 10, so the street went into lock-down. Poor Maria Miller could not convince the guys at the gate to let her in — although I think she had her security pass on her.”
Fortunately the weather was fine but the Culture Secretary was forced to loiter in the street “for a good 10 minutes” before her private secretary managed to convince the suspicious minders of who she was.
Miller could be forgiven for becoming agitated — after her Downing Street meeting she went to the British Library to deliver a keynote speech on arts funding. She seems to have spared her office a full account of the embarrassing incident. “I wasn’t aware that had happened,” said a spokesman for Miller.
