Conservatives reject inquiry to clear Ted Heath’s name
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The Government has rejected calls to hold an independent inquiry into claims of sexual abuse against Sir Edward Heath, the former prime minister.
Police spent two years and £1.2 million investigating seven claims against the former Conservative leader made after his death in 2005. One of Sir Edward’s accusers, fantasist Carl Beech, was later jailed for 18 years for perverting the course of justice.
The House of Lords this week pressured the Government to set up an inquiry, saying they owed it to the “dead statesman” and labelling the unresolved allegations a “stain on British justice”.
However, Lord Sharpe, junior Home Office minister, ruled out the move despite calling the allegations “patent rubbish”.
He told the chamber: “The Government has no plans to establish an independent inquiry to review the outstanding allegations against Sir Edward Heath.
“It remains for the local police and crime commissioner to consider whether an inquiry is necessary.”
Peers question need for inquiry
Successive Conservative governments have resisted holding an inquiry since the investigation into Sir Edward ended in 2017. Should Labour win the next election, it seems unlikely to take up the cause of the former Tory leader.
The intervention from peers came after Mike Veale, who led the investigation into Sir Edward, was barred indefinitely from serving in August when he was found guilty of gross misconduct.
The former chief constable, 57, was found by a disciplinary panel to have told a female colleague she could touch herself as they sat in a car together.
Lord Lexden, a political historian, told the House: “Is it not imperative to carry out an independent review of the seven allegations made against Sir Edward Heath long after his death, which Veale failed to clear up after a long investigation?
“Must there not be a strong suspicion that Veale left these allegations open, neither proved nor disproved, to save face after failing to find a single shred of evidence to support any of the accusations?”
He added: “Do we not owe it to the memory of a dead statesman, the only First Minister of the Crown ever to be suspected of such serious crimes, to get at the truth of this grave matter and settle the doubts created by the disgraced Veale?”
‘Stain on British justice’
Lord Howell, who served in Sir Edward’s government in the early 1970s, told peers: “We have these foul-mouthed accusations from a totally unreliable source allowed to drift in the wind with no attempt to tidy up and bring closure to the whole situation.
“Is this not a stain on British justice? Is it not up to the Government now to… bring this matter to honest clarity?”
However, Lord Butler, Sir Edward’s former private secretary, suggested the allegations had been “effectively resolved” by the jailing of Beech and Mr Veale’s dismissal.
Facing repeated calls for an inquiry, Lord Sharpe insisted: “The fact that it involved a former prime minister does not of itself warrant government intervention.”
