Powerful paedophiles - If not Peter Morrison then who?

It now appears that the speculation that the adviser to a former Prime Minister referred to in the question to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, earlier today was incorrect. Tom Watson now makes clear it was not Peter Morrison that was being referred to.

Tom Watson MP has written a little about the background to his question at today's Prime Ministers Questions here: A little more background on today’s PMQ’s.

I am not naming the person for obvious reasons but for clarity it is not former MP, Peter Morrison.

If it's not Peter Morrison that was being referred to then who was it?

Mr Watson seems to have a touching faith in the integrity of the Metropolitan Police:

One final thing I should say – I made the decision to ask a question of the PM late this morning and had not had time to write to the Met before speaking out. I have no doubt the Met will take this seriously and am sorry I didn’t have time to forewarn the commissioner of my intention to raise the matter.

I have written to him this afternoon with more details regarding the case.

Powerful paedophiles: Jimmy Savile and those who protected him

The recent ITV documentary about the paedophile activities of Jimmy Savile has opened up (or at least dented) a very large can of worms.

The BBC, so it seems to me, has sought to create the impression that Jimmy Savile acted alone and acted in isolation.

But is that true?

At Prime Ministers Questions today Tom Watson MP cast a huge rock into what has, publicly at least, been a remarkably still pool.

Pending the publication of the official text of his question tomorrow I understand the question asked by Mr. Watson to have been the following (or something very similar):

The evidence file – used to convict paedophile Peter Righton – if it still exists, contains clear intelligence of a widespread paedophile ring. One of it’s members boasts of his links to a senior aide of a former Prime minister, who says he could smuggle indecent images of children from abroad. The leads were not followed up, but if the files still exist, I want to ensure that the Metropolitan Police secure the evidence, re-examine it, and investigate clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and Number 10.

There we have it. An alleged powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and to Number 10 Downing Street.

According to the Guardian website, Tom Watson may have been referring to the late Sir Peter Morrison. See Prisoner voting row and PMQs: Politics live blog.

The Guardian's Andrew Sparrow provided the following quote from a Sunday Times article:

Edwina Currie, the former Conservative minister, has claimed that a leading Tory MP during Margaret Thatcher’s era had sex with underage boys — and senior party members had covered up for him.

Currie, 66, said this weekend she had heard that Sir Peter Morrison, Thatcher’s parliamentary private secretary and deputy chairman of the party, had sex with 16-year-old boys when the age of consent was 21.

“Was he doing anything illegal? Almost certainly. Would it be illegal today? Hard to tell now the age of consent is down to 16,” she said.

Morrison had been in charge of Thatcher’s disastrous leadership campaign team in 1990 when she lost power. He died aged 51 in 1995.

Currie said Morrison had been protected by a “culture of sniggering, of giggling and of nudge-nudge, wink-wink” as well as by the difficulties of getting cases to court at that time

It is rumoured that Jimmy Savile spent time with the Thatchers.

What was the nature of that relationship?

Did the relationship with the Thatchers help to provide protection for Savile's illegal activities?

Did the Police investigate honestly and diligently?

These, and other related questions, will, I surmise, be the subject of ongoing public attention.