LEO ABSE, the flamboyant, late Welsh Labour MP, is being investigated by police on suspicion of child abuse.

Documents from South Wales police reveal that allegations against the long-serving politician, who died in 2008 aged 91, are being examined by another force.

The investigation is understood to centre on an alleged “politicians’ network” involving Abse’s close friend George Thomas, the former Labour Speaker of the House of Commons.

Last year it emerged that Thomas, who died in 1997, was being investigated for raping a nine-year-old boy in Cardiff in the late 1960s.

Scotland Yard refused to confirm or deny whether it was involved in the Abse inquiry.

The Sunday Times has also established that a Church of England review into historic sexual abuse has passed