Tebbit: Child abuse cover-up possible

Former Conservative cabinet minister Lord Tebbit has said there "may well" have been a political cover-up over child abuse taking place at Westminster in the 1980s.

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 to delve too deeply into uncomfortable allegations.

His incendiary claim followed the admission by the Home Office that more than 100 files relating to historic organised child abuse over a period of 20 years had gone missing.