Labour MP links Leon Brittan to 80s child abuse claims: Amid row over historic sex crimes inquiry, former Home Secretary named in Commons
- Jim Hood used miners strike debate to level allegations against Lord Brittan
- Business minister Matthew Hancock blasts the remarks as 'disgusting'
- MPs comments are protected from slander and contempt of court laws
Allegations: Lord Brittan, home
secretary under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, was yesterday accused of
child abuse in a Commons debate
A Labour MP has used parliamentary privilege to accuse former Home Secretary Leon Brittan of ‘improper conduct with children’.
He
used a Commons debate on the 1984-85 miners’ strike to suggest that
those who took part in the industrial action will not be surprised by
the allegations against Lord Brittan.
The
remarks from Jim Hood, who said there were ‘reports about child abuse
being linked with’ the Conservative politician, were criticised as
‘disgusting’ by business minister Matthew Hancock.
Under
parliamentary privilege, MPs can make contentious allegations without
fear of prosecution for slander or contempt of court. But critics said
Mr Hood’s comments were an abuse of this privilege.
The
row comes amid calls for the head of the official inquiry into historic
child sex abuse to resign over links to Lord Brittan, now 75. Fiona
Woolf has admitted attending dinner parties with the politician, who was
in charge of the Home Office in the 1980s.
It
has been claimed that Lord Brittan was handed a file, which is now
missing, in late 1983 which allegedly detailed child abuse at the
highest levels of Westminster.
But he has not until now been publicly accused of having played a part in such abuse.
The
controversial remarks were made during a debate in which MPs accepted a
motion which said Margaret Thatcher’s government ‘misled the public’
about pit closure plans during the 1984 miners’ strike.
Mr
Hood, the MP for Lanark and Hamilton East, who had been discussing
violence on picket lines, said: ‘By the way, the current exposé of Sir
Leon Brittan, the then home secretary, with accusations of improper
conduct with children will not come as a surprise to striking miners of
1984.’
Tory
MP Conor Burns raised an immediate point of order and said: ‘He has
just made very profound, serious accusations against a noble Lord. Is
that in order?’
Deputy
Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said he had not heard the remark but replied:
‘It’s up to each member to decide what they said and they must make that
decision.’
Mr
Hood continued: ‘The rumours that Sir Leon Brittan was involved with
misconduct with children does not come as news to miners who were
striking in 1984.
‘When
miners were going up into the dock in magistrates’ courts we were aware
and miners were declaring … the point is miners were saying in the dock
in magistrates’ courts throughout the strike that they objected to
instructions coming from the home secretary when there were reports
about child abuse being linked with that same home secretary.’
The remarks
from Jim Hood, left, come amid calls for the head of the inquiry into
historic child sex abuse to resign over links to Lord Brittan. Fiona
Woolf, right, has admitted attending dinner with the politician
Mr
Hoyle intervened again and said: ‘I think it is up to each MP, we have
to be very careful on what we said, and we must consider what we are
saying and what the implications are.’
Mr Hood said: ‘I accept, obviously, what you say but I’m just repeating what I’m reading in the papers.’
Mr
Hancock then intervened before the next MP spoke, saying: ‘At the end
of this debate the Labour front bench should disassociate themselves
from the disgusting remarks of the previous speaker.’
Speaking
after the debate, Mr Burns said: ‘I was astounded that Jim Hood
casually, without thought or deliberation, appeared to accuse Lord
Brittan of being a paedophile in a debate about the future and the past
of the mining industry in Britain.’
Last
night Lord Tebbit, who was a Cabinet colleague of Lord Brittan, said:
‘I think it would be better if somebody wants to make these allegations
of Lord Brittan, that they should do it outside the Chamber, where they
can be tested – if necessary in a court of law.
‘Parliamentary
privilege is a useful thing, but it needs to be used with care and in
an open manner. If this gentleman has some evidence which causes him to
believe this, why not make these comments outside?’
He
added: ‘I’m not a particular friend of Leon Brittan, but this gentleman
could equally well get up and accuse me of things like this – and I
wouldn’t care for that. In fact I’d probably go round and smack him on
the nose.’
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