I WON’T NAME CHILD ABUSE MP
Fury as Mrs T’s Cabinet chief defends failure to act over senior Tory
THE most senior civil servant in the Thatcher government was accused of a ‘shocking’ and ‘cavalier’ attitude last night after he defended an apparent child abuse cover-up.
Former Cabinet Secretary Lord Armstrong was warned by the security services in 1986 that an MP had ‘a penchant for small boys’.
But no action was taken and yesterday Lord Armstrong, who refused to name the MP involved, insisted the allegations were just ‘shadows of a rumour’. He said he believed the decision not to investigate the paedophile claims was ‘correct at the time’.
It emerged this week that MI5 had known about the allegations but failed to investigate after the MP denied them. Sir Antony Duff, then MI5 director-general, wrote to Lord (then Sir Robert) Armstrong, saying the man ‘has a penchant for small boys’.
He added: ‘At the present stage… the risks of political embarrassment to the government is rather greater than the security danger.’
The letter was part of a cache of files unearthed by the Cabinet Office and handed over to an official inquiry into historical abuse allegations. It has been seized upon by campaigners as evidence of a deliberate cover-up.
The MP has not been named but other papers in the files related to key government figures from the 1980s, including Mrs Thatcher’s former parliamentary secretary Sir Peter Morrison and former Home Secretary Leon Brittan.
Police are already investigating claims l i nking both men to alleged paedophile rings in Westminster but neither man was charged with any crime during their lifetime.
Lord Armstrong told the Daily Mail: ‘I thought MI5’s actions were correct at the time. I think they were right to report the rumour, they were right to make what inquiries they could and they were right to come to the conclusion they did. I think if there was evidence it would have been properly examined at the time. I don’t think this is a matter of important people being protected. You can’t pursue inquiries unless you have evidence on which you can base the enquiry. A shadow of a rumour is not enough.’
Lord Armstrong said he knew the identity of the MP in question but refused to name him, saying: ‘I think he was interviewed but he denied it. It is not my position to name him.’
He said he did not know if Mrs Thatcher was told of the MI5 decision. Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP for Rochdale who helped uncover the extent of Cyril Smith’s child abuse, said he was shocked by Lord Armstrong’s ‘cavalier attitude’. He said: ‘It’s a criminal matter and it beggars belief that someone at the heart of government should show such a lack of interest in protecting children.
‘We know that young boys were raped by powerful people causing untold damage and it looks like the only priority for those running the country at the time was to protect the reputation of the Government at all costs.’
Two of the files unearthed by the Cabinet Office were said to have come from the Prime Minister’s office.
One related to the diplomat Sir Peter Hayman and the security risks posed by his ‘unnatural sexual proclivities’.
The other named former Tory minister Sir William van Straubenzee, although it is not clear whether it contained any allegations against him.
Sir William’s sister dismissed any abuse suspicions against him as ‘total balderdash’. Vivien van Straubenzee, 80, told Channel 4 News: ‘He’s been dead for 15 years. I think it’s absolute nonsense. It’s absolute rubbish. The thought of him doing anything like that is just dreadfully crazy.’
The documents relating to Leon Brittan, Peter Morrison, William van Straubenzee and Peter Hayman have been shown to police and will be passed to inquiry into child sex abuse being led by Dame Lowell Goddard.
David Cameron promised there would be no bar to current investigations, adding: ‘The police on their part should then follow the evidence without any fear and without any uncertainty about how high they can go – they can go as high as they like.’
We’ll publish names of VIP child abusers, inquiry chief warns
From the Mail, July 10 Secret f iles ‘show MI5 let abuse claim MP off hook’
Yesterday’s Mail