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Margaret Thatcher secured a knighthood for a top Tory despite being warned of claims that he had held sex parties with under-age boys.

Mrs Thatcher’s former police bodyguard says he passed on allegations about Peter Morrison to the Tory prime minister in 1986.

Former deputy party chairman Morrison is now widely suspected of being a child-sex pervert.

Just four years after the warning, Mrs Thatcher personally recommended Morrison for a knighthood.

Documents obtained under Freedom of Information show she put him forward to become a Sir in December 1990, days after she resigned as PM.

The honour was conferred on Morrison by the Queen at Buckingham Palace in February 1991.

Labour MP Simon Danczuk , who exposed the Sir Cyril Smith paedophile scandal, said today: “What has become painfully apparent is that people at the top of Government turned a blind eye to appalling sexual abuse by politicians.

“I’ve met someone who alleges he was raped by Morrison and there is widespread anger and disbelief that someone like him could have been protected by the prime minister at the time.”

Other papers reveal Mrs Thatcher also recommended a knighthood for former Tory Home Secretary Leon Brittan in 1989.

Last year the Sunday People revealed how Mrs Thatcher had warned a senior minister to “clean up your sexual act” after being warned of his lust for young boys at a high-level meeting with the security service MI5 and police.

(Image: PA)

Child sex abuse claims against Brittan, who died four months ago aged 75, are currently being investigated by police as part of a major inquiry into alleged VIP paedophiles.

The revelation about Morrison comes after damning disclosures about Mrs Thatcher’s knowledge of abuse allegations against Liberal MP Cyril Smith and DJ Jimmy Savile , who were both knighted.

Morrison, who died aged 51 in 1995 from a heart attack, was one of Mrs Thatcher’s staunchest supporters and one of the first Tories to urge her to stand for leadership.

The PM’s bodyguard, former detective chief inspector Barry Strevens, says he passed on claims about the MP for Chester to Mrs Thatcher and her private secretary Archie Hamilton in 1986.

He says he told them a senior officer in Chester had warned him of rumours about under-age boys attending sex parties at a house owned by Morrison.

Mr Strevens, 71, said: “Archie took notes and they thanked me.”

Mr Hamilton, 73, says he remembered the officer had been at Downing Street but couldn’t recall any mention of under-age boys.

He said: “She listened to what he said and that was it. It was merely a party.”

Morrison, MP for Chester from 1974 to 1992, has also been implicated in the child-sex abuse scandal at care homes in North Wales.