Heath’s reputation

SIR – I worked for Ted Heath in the Foreign Office in the Sixties, when he was Lord Privy Seal, and was in touch with him over the years (including when he visited Baghdad in 1990 and secured the release of a number of the incarcerated “human shields”). He was a good man to work with and for.

Chief Constable Mike Veale, after an investigation that prejudicially began with a call for “victims” to come forward, has said that six allegations of abuse (out of 42) had reached the threshold to warrant the questioning of Ted Heath had he still been alive. However, he produced few details about these allegations, with the result that they cannot be further tested. By simply referring the dossier to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which looks into institutions, not individuals, the Chief Constable inevitably leaves a cloud of suspicion.

When the operation inquiring into Lord Bramall and others collapsed, a judge was commissioned to conduct a review. Ted Heath, who is no position to defend himself, deserves no less. Sir Harold Walker London SW14