Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, used the floor of the Commons to make an unfounded allegation that a senior Conservative MP was linked to the smuggling of child abuse images.
Mr Watson did not name the politician but his description was enough to match one candidate: a respected Tory of good character whose identity quickly spread through Westminster as the alleged suspect.
The MP — who was targeted by Mr Watson using parliamentary privilege in the Commons three years ago — alerted a lawyer and the Press Complaints Commission after he realised that people had worked out who he was, it is understood. Parliamentary privilege allows MPs to make allegations without fear of being sued, but Mr Watson may be accused of overstepping the mark.
The revelation brings the number of parliamentarians targeted by Mr Watson to three, amid claims that he is fuelling a witch-hunt in Westminster.
He may face questions about the newly revealed incident when he is questioned next week by MPs about paedophile claims that he levelled against Lord Brittan. Alison Saunders, director of public prosecutions, has also been called to give evidence on the investigation into the late Tory home secretary.
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The Times has known for nearly three years that Mr Watson targeted the Tory in the Commons but is publishing details now that he is being called before MPs to explain his conduct.
Mr Watson’s claims have been contradicted by Mike Hames, a retired Scotland Yard detective. He is in the strongest position to repudiate the allegations as his squad carried out the investigation which Mr Watson alleged had found intelligence linking the MP, a former No 10 aide, to paedophilia.
Mr Hames said he had known the politician’s identity for years but there had never been any suspicion of involvement in wrongdoing. Using parliamentary privilege, Mr Watson — then his party’s national campaign co-ordinator — said in 2012 that the evidence file used to convict the paedophile Peter Righton “contains clear intelligence of a widespread paedophile ring”. He said: “One of its 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.”
Mr Watson urged police to “investigate clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to parliament and No 10”. He later blogged that a paedophile “boasted of a key aide to a former PM who could help get hold of indecent images of children”.
Mr Hames, a retired head of the obscene publications branch, said: “It is terrible that Watson... said what he did because that was a conspiracy too far.” Asked whether Righton had been linked to a paedophile ring reaching parliament, Mr Hames said: “No, nothing. People are putting two and two together and making seven.”
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Catherine Seddon, producer of an 18-month BBC investigation into Righton, told The Times that the programme-makers “never had any hint” that he was linked to a West-minster paedophile ring.
As well as intervening in the cases of Lord Brittan and the Tory MP, Mr Watson has called for police to interview an unnamed coalition minister over allegations of sexual assault on a 14-year-old boy. A spokesman for Mr Watson declined to comment.
Boris Johnson, the London mayor, joined calls yesterday for Mr Watson to apologise for an “absolutely hysterical” campaign against Lord Brittan.
The former MP Harvey Proctor urged Zac Goldsmith to rethink his candidacy for London mayor if he failed to withdraw allegations in parliament that establishment figures went to a guesthouse in his constituency where children were abused. Mr Goldsmith had referred to an unnamed former cabinet minister which led to Lord Brittan being identified.
Sir Samuel Brittan, told The Guardian it would be helpful if Mr Goldsmith confirmed that his brother was innocent. Mr Goldsmith’s spokeswoman said he had “rightly pointed out” that abuse claims should be taken seriously