Victim: Author Alex Wheatle says a paedophile ring targeted the children's home he was in in the 1980s, but abuse was covered up when it was linked to a Labour MP

An MP in Tony Blair's government was part of a paedophile ring which infiltrated a council children's home where an award winning author was abused in care, it was claimed today.

Alex Wheatle, 51, said he was attacked at Shirley Oaks in Surrey, which took youngsters from Lambeth in south London.

After moving there as a three-year-old, a doctor abused him during an appointment where he was forced to strip naked, while he said that a swimming instructor, a football coach and even staff groped and even raped boys and girls.

Mr Wheatle was also beaten with hair brushes, belts and boots, because 'suffering violence was as much a part of my day as eating toast', he said.

The father-of-three said that the abuse was covered up when a Labour MP was named as being an alleged member of a network of child abusers targeting the borough.

Mr Wheatle, who was attacked at Shirley Oaks near Croydon in the 1980s, where the politician also visited regularly in the same period.

The author, handed an MBE five years ago by the Queen, said paedophiles also targeted the South Vale centre in Lambeth, where children were assessed before being sent to Shirley Oaks.

Describing his life there he told the Daily Mirror: 'We would see strange nameless men within the Shirley Oaks grounds.

'I'm convinced there was a paedophile ring operating in both South Vale and Shirley Oaks and that the authorities knew about it at the time but did nothing'.

Success story: Mr Wheatle rebuilt his life, became a celebrated author and received an MBE in 2008, but says that many children who were abused could not cope with what happened to them

Mr Wheatle said he and other children feared speaking out in case they were sent 'somewhere worse', and several killed themselves after suffering unspeakable abuse.

The south Londoner, who has written bestsellers including Brenton Brown and Brixton Rock, has demanded Theresa May's inquiries are 'thorough' and will go to the police himself.

Yesterday it was claimed senior Tory politicians took part in drink and drug-fuelled sex parties with underage boys during seaside conferences.

Former activist Anthony Gilberthorpe says he was handed cash and told to ‘fetch entertainment’ - code for young boys – by members of Margaret Thatcher’s government.

But the claims were today rejected as ‘tittle-tattle’ by former Conservative minister David Mellor, who insisted those named were dead and unable to defend themselves.

Westminster has been gripped by claims of an Establishment cover-up of allegations of child sex abuse over several decades.

The government has appointed former High Court judge Baroness Butler-Sloss to lead a wide-ranging panel inquiry into abuse at every level of society.

Former activist Anthony Gilberthorpe, left, claims he was asked to find underage boys for sex during Tory party conferences when Margaret Thatcher was leader in the early 1980s

Mr Gilberthorpe says he will give the inquiry the names of former Tory ministers, some of whom are still alive, who he claims he saw with young men at party conferences.

He claims he sent a 40-page dossier to Mrs Thatcher in 1989 detailing Cabinet ministers who took part in the sex parties, but says he was warned off by a senior civil servant.

He told the Sunday Mirror how boys as young as 15 were plied with alcohol and cocaine at Conservative gatherings in Blackpool and Brighton in the 1980s.