Child Sex Ring Inquiry 'To Get To The Truth'

Claims of a child sex abuse ring operating at some of the country's most powerful institutions in the 1980s will be investigated, George Osborne has said.

The Chancellor announced there would be an "independent and authoritative" review of the claims as pressure over allegations of a paedophile ring operating in Westminster intensified.

Mr Osborne said the investigation needed to "get to the truth" behind the widespread claims of child sex abuse and Home Secretary Theresa May would be announcing the details of the review in a statement later on Monday.

It comes after former Conservative cabinet minister Lord Tebbit said there may have been a political cover-up of allegations in the 1980s to "protect the establishment".

A Home Office investigation found that 114 official files relating to claims of child abuse by politicians have been lost or destroyed.

The allegations include claims of abuse by late Liberal MP Sir Cyril Smith

These files are in addition to a missing dossier alleging child abuse involving around eight powerful and famous figures at Westminster in the 1980s, handed to the Home Office by the late Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens in 1983.

The allegations include claims of abuse by the late Liberal MP Sir Cyril Smith and alleged paedophile activity at parties attended by politicians at the Elm Guest House in Barnes, southwest London.

Mrs May is expected to will announce an investigation into who knew what and when and why the allegations were missed, overlooked or ignored by public bodies.

It has been suggested that a panel of experts will take evidence from members of the public as part of the investigation but it will stop short of a full public inquiry.

Mr Osborne told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The best approach to this is to find an independent and authoritative way to investigate it. The Home Secretary is going to be setting out to the House of Commons in just a few hours' time the approach we are going to take.

Lord Tebbit believes an establishment cover-up is possible

"But people can be absolutely clear, these are very, very serious matters, we take them very seriously, we want to get to the truth and nothing but the truth, and we will do it in an independent and authoritative way."

A Home Office spokesman said Mrs May's statement would address key concerns: "First, the Home Office's response in the 1980s to papers containing allegations of child abuse.

"And second, the wider issue of whether public bodies and other institutions have taken seriously their duty of care towards children."

Lord Tebbit, who served in a series of senior ministerial posts under Margaret Thatcher, said the instinct at the time was to protect "the system" and not delve too deeply into uncomfortable allegations.

"At that time I think most people would have thought that the establishment, the system, was to be protected and if a few things had gone wrong here and there that it was more important to protect the system than to delve too far into it.

"That view, I think, was wrong then and it is spectacularly shown to be wrong because the abuses have grown," he told BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show.

Asked if he thought there had been a "big political cover-up" at the time, he said: "I think there may well have been."

Prime Minister David Cameron has ordered an internal review at the Home Office to "find answers" about the missing files, which will be carried out by its most senior civil servant Mark Sedwill.

But Labour says a full public inquiry is needed.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: "We need a wide-ranging review that can look at how all the allegations put to the Home Office in the 80s and 90s were handled. Any stones left unturned will leave concerns of institutional malaise, or worse a cover-up, unaddressed."

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