'I owned the car which crashed into Downing St gates'

A journalist has spoken of his shock after he discovered his "cursed" former car was the vehicle that crashed into the Downing Street gates.

Jonny McFarlane recognised the silver Kia Ceed when he saw it on the news on Friday.

The Met Police said the driver was held on suspicion of criminal damage and dangerous driving, following the incident at 16:20 BST on Thursday.

It is not being treated as terror related.

Mr McFarlane, who is head of digital sport at Newsquest Scotland, said he travelled across the UK in the 2l-plate diesel car but joked he never drove it in London.

He told The Herald newspaper: "I'd only had it three years and yes, I'd done maybe 60,000 miles, but it was just a constant menace to my bank balance."

Mr McFarlane revealed he only drew the connection when his partner, Nicola, mentioned the incident to him on Friday.

He added: "I had a wee look and thought, 'that car looks awfully familiar…'

"Nicola said to me: 'Jonny… have you seen the licence plate?'.

"I looked at it and went: 'wow… it can't be? That car would have never been good to go five years on'.

"I was looking through the images and you could see it was the same car."

Mr McFarlane also revealed he left some distinguishing marks on the vehicle, which he bought from a branch of Arnold Clark in Edinburgh.

He said: "Honestly my driving is bad, so it was scratched up and I could see in some of the pictures some of the scratches and bangs were still on it."

The journalist later sold it back to the company in Glasgow and admitted he had "no idea" what it was doing in London.

Reflecting on the fact it had now made headlines around the world, he said: "You're just a bit taken aback knowing you've spent so much time in this car, I used to sit in that car for hours and hours on end.

"We never took it to London - I want to make that very clear!

"You're looking down at your old not-very-trusty motor, it's a bit of a headscratcher."

Mr McFarlane travelled all over England in the car in his former job as a sales trainer.

He said: "I bought it in 2015 but for the next two years it was a nightmare - it was like it was cursed, honestly.

"It was constantly having issues, £500 here to fix, £600 there, £800 somewhere else.

"I remember going to the local garage and the guy just said, 'this car is giving you murder. I don't think it's going to last an awful lot longer, you should consider trading it in'."

Eventually it had an issue which was going to cost another £1,000 to fix so Mr McFarlane decided to trade it in.

He said: "I honestly thought that car would last a maximum of a year for whoever Arnold Clark sold it on to.

"I thought I was selling them an absolute lemon."

The Downing Street incident came as many civil servants were leaving work.

The area in Whitehall, the main road which runs through the heart of several government offices, was partially evacuated following the incident.

A police cordon was initially put in place but was later lifted.

A tow truck then removed the vehicle from the area.

No-one was injured in the incident. No 10 later confirmed Rishi Sunak was in Downing Street at the time.