Steel quits party and Lords over failures in Cyril Smith scandal
LORD STEEL, the former Liberal leader, has quit the Lib Dems after being criticised for failing to flag concerns over Cyril Smith, the serial paedophile.
The 81-year-old also announced he would resign from the House of Lords after the long-awaited independent inquiry into Child Sex Abuse report into Westminster abuse accused him of an “abdication of responsibility”. As revealed in The Daily Telegraph last week, Lord Steel came in for criticism in the inquiry’s report, which said political parties, police and prosecutors had “turned a blind eye” to individual cases of child abuse.
Lord Steel told the inquiry he recalled questioning in 1979 the former Rochdale MP about allegations published in Private Eye that accused him of spanking boys. He said he assumed Smith had committed the offences but took no action as he thought the police had already looked into the matter. The incidents also took place before Smith had been a party member.
Lord Steel later recommended Smith for a knighthood, which he duly received in 1988. But following his death in 2010 it emerged the 29-stone politician had abused more than 100 boys.
The report stated: “This failure to recognise the risk that Cyril Smith potentially posed to children was an abdication of responsibility by a political leader and an example of a highly placed politician turning a blind eye to something that was potentially troublesome to his party, with no apparent regard for criminal acts which might have occurred or for any victims.” In a statement shortly after the report’s publication, Lord Steel said he had been made a “proxy for Cyril Smith”.
Announcing his intention to resign, he said: “Knowing all I know now, I condemn Cyril Smith’s actions towards children. Not having secured a parliamentary scalp, I fear I have been made a proxy for Cyril Smith.”
But Richard Scorer, a specialist abuse lawyer at Slater and Gordon, representing eight of Smith’s victims, said:
“(Lord) Steel’s total inaction after being told by Smith himself that he had molested young boys is unforgivable.
“To suggest he is a scapegoat, as some have done, is a pathetic attempt to excuse a man who admitted he knowingly turned a blind eye. He is not being blamed for them but for his own failure to stop Smith when he had the chance.
“There is not a word of apology for the victims. In announcing his resignation, he is still presenting himself as the victim. That is completely ludicrous.”