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The number of MPs demanding an over-arching inquiry into the scandal of how child sex abuse claims went uninvestigated rose to 132 today amid claims that allegations about Jimmy Savile and Cyril Smith were given to ministers three decades ago.

The son of the late Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens said he believed the pair, who are now known to have been serial abusers of children in care, were named in a dossier that was personally given to former Home Secretary Lord Brittan in 1983.

Barry Dickens said: “Now we know my father was right. He was right about Cyril Smith and he was right about Jimmy Savile, who I believe were both named in the dossier.”

Both Smith and Savile continued to be feted by the establishment for years, raising new questions about how the sex abuse scandals that have emerged in recent months failed to be uncovered at the time.

Tory MP Zac Goldsmith, one of the organisers of the campaign by MPs, warned ministers that demand for a Hillsborough-style investigation into decades of failure was becoming “irresistible”. He said: “It does make sense to have all these different inquiries brought together because it is clear there has been an underlying problem. I’m sure there are practical reasons to refuse but demand is now so huge it is irresistible.”

However, Deputy premier Nick Clegg said a public inquiry into allegations of historic paedophile activity in and around Westminster would be “no surrogate” for a full police investigation.

“I just want the truth to come out and justice to be done. When we’re dealing with allegations of such a serious criminal nature, I don’t think there’s any surrogate for allowing the police to get to the bottom of what happened.”

Downing Street argues that several existing inquiries into failings at care services and hospitals and the BBC should be allowed to conclude.

Labour is calling for a lessons learned inquiry but is against an over-arching probe in case it conflicted with criminal investigations.

Yesterday former home secretary Lord Brittan defended his handling of the Dickens dossier which named people in Westminster.

He said: “Following the meeting [with Dickens], I asked my officials to look carefully at the material contained in the papers provided and report back to me if they considered that any action needed to be taken by the Home Office. In addition I asked my officials to consider a referral to another Government Department, such as the Attorney General’s Department, if that was appropriate. This was the normal procedure for handling material presented to the Home Secretary.”

The Government admitted that the dossier had been either lost or destroyed. Mr Dickens’ widow had a copy but the family said she destroyed it because it was so incendiary.

Former director of public prosecutions Lord Macdonald told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme: “It sounds to me as though there needs to be further investigation into this. Some of the detail is more than troubling. It’s alarming when material goes missing.

“This may just be the passage of time, it may not be anything sinister, but I don’t think people are going to be satisfied for this to be left as it is.”