Enoch Powell’s name has been passed to police in connection to the probe into an alleged paedophile network at the heart of the British Establishment.

The Bishop of Durham, Paul Butler, has informed the police that Powell, former Conservative government minister, is linked to ‘satanic ritual abuse’.

Scotland Yard are to investigate the claim of satanic abuse and demand to see filed held on serving MPs

Simon Heffer, Powell’s official biographer and former confidante has branded the allegations ‘absolute nonsense’ and without foundation.

The Mail on Sunday reveals: that the late Tory MP, one of the most prominent and divisive politicians of the 20th Century, has been named to Scotland Yard by the Bishop of Durham. The claims relate to ‘ritual satanic abuse’.

And in a further development to the sex-ring investigations, police are to be given access to secret files held on MPs in the House of Commons archives as they hunt for evidence on suspected abusers, including former Liberal MP Cyril Smith.

The Bishop of Durham, Paul Butler, contacted police after Powell’s name was passed to him by a former Bishop of Monmouth, Dominic Walker, who first heard the allegation when he was a vicar counselling young adults in the 1980s.

The claim is being examined by Operation Fenbridge, one of a number of police probes into ‘Establishment paedophile rings’ – including an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission into claims that officers dropped their inquiries under pressure from powerful individuals.

Mr Walker is believed to have warned the Right Rev Butler that at the time he was told of the claims against Powell, unsubstantiated allegations of satanic rituals – often involving the abuse of children – were widespread.

In 1994, an investigation by the London School of Economics into 84 alleged cases of ‘satanic abuse’ in the UK between 1987 and 1992, including notorious cases in Rochdale and the Orkneys that involved social workers and police forcibly removing children from their homes in dawn raids, found no convincing corroborative evidence.

However, the ongoing scandal over how serial paedophile Jimmy Savile was able to evade detection for decades has led institutions to take a safety-first approach, so the Church felt it had no option but to pass on the information to police.

Enoch Powell’s frontline political career ended abruptly in 1968 after he made his infamous ‘rivers of blood’ speech warning about the dangers of uncontrolled immigration.

Tory leader Edward Heath sacked him from the Shadow Cabinet the following day, although Powell remained an MP until 1974.