David Steel (pictured above) said sexual predator Cyrill Smith had confessed to him but admitted that he had taken no action
Lord Steel will be suspended by the Liberal Democrats today after admitting he knew about the crimes of serial paedophile MP Cyril Smith.
The former Liberal leader said the sexual predator confessed to him – but admitted he took no action.
In astonishing evidence to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Lord Steel said he would act in the same way again, even though Smith went on to abuse other victims. The 80-year-old peer’s remarks triggered a furious backlash and demands for the Lib Dems to suspend him.
The party announced yesterday it had launched a probe into Lord Steel over his comments, and deputy leader Jo Swinson tweeted: ‘Clearly this is incredibly serious and he should be suspended while this takes place.’
Last night, Lib Dem sources confirmed that the peer will be suspended from the party today.
While he was Liberal leader, Lord Steel confronted Smith in 1979 after a Private Eye article revealed the MP’s abuse of children at a care home, the inquiry heard on Wednesday. The article accused 29-stone Smith, then the MP for Rochdale, of abusing teenage boys at the town’s Cambridge House Hostel, of which he was a trustee.
David Steel (left) and Cyril Smith pictured together. Lord Steel suggested that he would react in the same way again if a similar situation arose
Lord Steel admitted to the inquiry that he had a ‘fairly brief conversation’ about the matter with Smith in the Commons but did not go into details. He said: ‘He just accepted that the story was correct and obviously I disapproved, but it was, as far as I was concerned, past history.
‘[He told me] that he had been in charge of, or had some supervisory role, in a children’s hostel, that he’d been investigated by the police and that they had taken no further action. That was the end of the story.’
When Brian Altman QC, counsel to the inquiry, asked why he had done nothing to intervene given that he was ‘uniquely in possession of his confession’, Lord Steel replied: ‘It just didn’t cross our minds.’
Brian Altman QC (pictured above) asked Lord Steel why he had done nothing to
