The police investigation into an allegation of rape against the late former Conservative home secretary Leon Brittan was “necessary, proportionate and fully justified”, a review has concluded.

Scotland Yard was widely criticised for its handling of an allegation that Lord Brittan, who served in Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet, raped a 19-year-old female student in his central London flat in 1967 before he became an MP.

Brittan died in January 2015, aged 75, not knowing that police had four months previously concluded he had no case to answer. His widow, Diana, was only informed in October 2015.

Brittan also officially remains under investigation by Operation Midland, which was launched after a witness known as “Nick” alleged that three boys had been murdered and others sexually abused by a VIP paedophile ring including men from politics, the military and law enforcement agencies.

The abuse was alleged to have taken place at locations across southern England, including Dolphin Square estate in Pimlico, south-west London, a plush residential development popular with politicians.

The review into the Metropolitan police’s handling of the rape allegation concluded that “any reasonable investigator could properly conclude that the allegations made by the complainant were far from fanciful and continued to be proportionate and justified”.

It also describes the investigators as “skilful” and says they pursued “appropriate lines of enquiry from the complainant’s account and obtained credible evidence,” but adds the case was more “likely to lead to acquittal than conviction”.



The complainant provided “a fairly compelling account of events”, was a “competent witness” who displayed “no malice in her motivation”, the report concludes.

“Her accounts of her situation in 1967 are corroborated and it is plausible that she was moving in similar social circles to [Leon Brittan]. The early disclosures in later years provide some consistency in her account and she appears to have little to gain from making a false allegation.”

The inquiry, commissioned by Met assistant commissioner Patricia Gallan and conducted by Dorset police deputy chief constable James Vaughan, conceded that the investigation had made mistakes, including the failure to tape an interview with Brittan because recording equipment broke down.

A spokesperson for the Met said the force had written to the Commons home affairs select committee in confidence on 26 January with details of the results of the inquiry and how it would improve the handling of such cases in the future. That letter was posted on the committee’s website on Sunday.

“The Met will not be making the review public given the personal and sensitive details within it,” said the spokesperson. The Met commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, has agreed to appear in front of the committee and answer questions from MPs on Operation Midland and Brittan on 23 February.

The Guardian has reported that Hogan-Howe is to meet Lady Brittan later this month to apologise for his force’s failure to confirm the politician’s innocence over the rape claim before his death.

In a letter to Diana Brittan in October – 10 months after the politician’s death – Steve Rodhouse, deputy assistant commissioner of the Met, apologised for the force’s conduct: “I do recognise that this clarity should have been provided at an earlier stage and I apologise for any distress that this has caused to Lady Brittan.”

Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, was also forced to apologise to Brittan’s family for repeating a claim by an alleged victim that the Conservative politician was as “as close to evil as any human being could get”.

Watson, an outspoken campaigner against child abuse, had written to the director of public prosecutions calling for the case to be reviewed in April 2014. Brittan was subsequently interviewed by police under criminal caution while he was terminally ill with cancer, although the Crown Prosecution Service denied that it was as a result of Watson’s representations.

The review into the Met’s conduct concludes that “the timing and location of the suspect’s interview at his solicitor’s offices was appropriate and sympathetic to his failing health, providing due regard to his public profile.”

Scotland Yard has said Operation Midland will continue despite reports it would be shut down. The former MP, Harvey Proctor, was accused of two murders and having a possible role in organising a third. He has never been arrested over the claims and denies any involvement.



Lord Bramall, a D-day veteran, was also accused of abuse but has been told he faces no further action. He has called on the Met to launch an inquiry into how it has handled the allegations.

• This footnote was appended on 15 February 2016 to provide a link to an Open Door column, “Reporting on historical sexual abuse allegations requires great care”, which discusses the use of terms in connection with historical sexual abuse cases, including “false rape claims”.

