Johnson’s ex-protection officer sacked by Met over affair allegations
By politics.co.uk staff
The police protection officer thought to be responsible for Alan Johnson's resignation from the shadow Cabinet earlier this year has been sacked without notice.
Police Constable Paul Rice was dismissed after he was found to have committed "discreditable conduct" by the Metropolitan police's directorate of professional standards.
The hearing, which sat in private, heard allegations that PC Rice had had an affair with Alan Johnson's wife while the Labour politician served as home secretary.
It was claimed he was also in a relationship with Mr Johnson's constituency assistant Tracy Windle from June 2009 to May 2010.
Commander Peter Spindler said: "The behaviour displayed by the officer was unacceptable and as such the board has rightly sanctioned him for the abuse of his position of trust.
"He has damaged the reputation of the MPS and the specialist discipline in which he worked. By doing so he breached the high professional standards expected by the public and his colleagues."
Protection officers are vetted carefully and serve the prime minister, Cabinet members and visiting foreign dignitaries.
PC Rice is thought to have served with current home secretary Theresa May before being suspended in January when the allegations emerged.
Mr Johnson has been reluctant to comment on the circumstances surrounding his resignation, which occurred just four months after taking on the shadow chancellor job.
At the time he only cited "personal issues in my private life" with which he was finding it "difficult to cope".
Sixty-one-year-old Mr Johnson has a ten-year-old son with 47-year-old Laura, his second wife, for almost 20 years.
