Leon Brittan rape inquiry: Tom Watson could face grilling over efforts to re-examine unproven claims

After the police decided not to pursue the investigation Labour's deputy leader wrote to the DPP to complain on behalf of the alleged victim

Tom Watson has been a driving force behind the investigation into the so-called 'VIP paedophile ring' (Getty)

Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, could face a grilling by the Home Affairs Committee over his efforts to re-examine unproven claims that the Conservative peer Leon Brittan raped a woman.

After the police decided not to pursue the investigation, without interviewing Lord Brittan, the MP wrote to the Director of Public Prosecutions to complain on behalf of the alleged victim.

This led police to tell the former Home Secretary that he was being accused of a rape in the 1960s. Officers later concluded that their original judgement had been correct but failed to tell Lord Brittan, who died in January this year without knowing that he had been cleared of suspicion.

In a case that potentially raises questions about political interference with the police, Detective Chief Inspector Paul Settle – formerly head of Scotland Yard’s paedophile unit – either quit or was moved from the wider investigation into an alleged VIP sex abuse ring, following Mr Watson’s intervention.

Keith Vaz, chairman of the home affairs select committee, said that while MPs could be called to give evidence to the committee, this was not “normal”, so its members would first need to agree that this should be done when they meet on Tuesday.

“I don’t know enough about what he [Watson] did in order to make a judgement,” he said.

“At the time, I think you, the media, were all very pleased and very supportive of what Tom was doing. Let’s be honest, the newspapers were very keen to pursue all this and now it’s kind of turned.”

Mr Vaz has written to the Metropolitan Police to ask why it did not inform Lord Brittan that it had decided not to pursue the case against him, and said he hoped it would reply before the meeting. “I think it’s terribly bad that has happened, and can quite understand the pain and suffering of his family,” he said.

He added that DCI Settle might be asked to give evidence, but “it depends what we do on Tuesday ... we much prefer people to come to us, rather than hunt them down”.

David Burrowes, a Conservative member of the select committee who will make the case for calling Mr Watson at Tuesday’s meeting, said: “A tragedy of justice was committed in the way that Leon Brittan and his family were treated. The rule of law was not applied.

Leon Brittan was at the centre of allegations concerning a dossier of child sex allegations which went missing. Brittan denied that he had failed to act on information he received (Getty)

“Tom Watson needs to be held to account .... This raises broader questions about the way people [MPs] act in public life and how they use their [parliamentary] privilege.”

But he added: “I’m not going to be judge and jury as, some would say, he [Watson] has been. We need to be careful that we don’t make assumptions ... and that it doesn’t become a witch-hunt.”

Writing in The Huffington Post on Friday, Mr Watson said he had apologised “for the distress Leon Brittan’s family experienced as they grieved for him”.

“But I wanted the claims made against him properly investigated. The choice facing anyone who is presented with testimony of this kind is whether to pass it on to the authorities and urge them to investigate or to ignore it. I chose the first option. I felt it was my duty to do so.”