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| Brittan asked officials to 'look carefully' at 'paedophile dossier' | Brittan asked officials to 'look carefully' at 'paedophile dossier' |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Ex-home secretary Lord Brittan said he asked his officials to "look carefully" at a dossier handed to him about alleged paedophiles in Westminster. | Ex-home secretary Lord Brittan said he asked his officials to "look carefully" at a dossier handed to him about alleged paedophiles in Westminster. |
| On Monday Labour's Simon Danczuk urged Lord Brittan to "share his knowledge of the allegations" contained in the 1980s report by late Tory MP Geoff Dickens. | On Monday Labour's Simon Danczuk urged Lord Brittan to "share his knowledge of the allegations" contained in the 1980s report by late Tory MP Geoff Dickens. |
| In a statement, he said he had asked officials to "report back to me" if "action needed to be taken". | In a statement, he said he had asked officials to "report back to me" if "action needed to be taken". |
| He "did not recall" being "contacted further about these matters", he said. | He "did not recall" being "contacted further about these matters", he said. |
| Mr Danczuk, who helped expose the late Liberal MP Cyril Smith as a child sex abuser, has called for a national overarching "Hillsborough-style" inquiry into allegations of child sex abuse. | |
| He told the influential Commons Home Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday that politics was "the last refuge of child sex abuse deniers" and there was a view among many politicians that alleged offenders should not be named. | |
| Bundle of papers | |
| He said Rochdale MP Smith, who died in 2010, had escaped prosecution because he had been "part of a network of people protecting each other". | |
| And he referred to a police investigation into a former guest house in south London where children were allegedly abused in the 1980s. | |
| The police have confirmed that Smith had been a visitor to Elm Guest House. | |
| Current Rochdale MP Mr Danczuk said he had spoken to a victim Smith had abused there and that "other high profile figures are alleged to have attended there". | |
| He said a dossier of child-sex allegations compiled by Mr Dickens, Conservative MP for part of what is now in the Rochdale constituency, had been presented to the then Mr Brittan. | |
| Mr Danczuk urged Lord Brittan to make public what he knew about the report. "It would be welcome if he stepped forward and shared his knowledge of the allegations," he said. | |
| In a statement on Wednesday, Lord Brittan said Mr Dickens had arranged to see him at the Home Office during his tenure as home secretary between 1983 and 1985. | |
| "As I recall, he came to my room at the Home Office with a substantial bundle of papers," he said. "As is normal practice, my private secretary would have been present at the meeting. | |
| "I told Mr Dickens that I would ensure that the papers were looked at carefully by the Home Office and acted on as necessary. Following the meeting, I asked my officials to look carefully at the material contained in the papers provided and report back to me if they considered that any action needed to be taken by the Home Office. | |
| "In addition I asked my officials to consider a referral to another government department, such as the attorney general's department, if that was appropriate. | |
| "This was the normal procedure for handing material presented to the home secretary. | |
| "I do not recall being contacted further about these matters by Home Office officials or by Mr Dickens or by anyone else." |