Met statement removes assertion that MP went to Elm Guest House in Barnes, which was allegedly used by a VIP paedophile ring

Doubts have been cast over the Metropolitan police service’s claims that Cyril Smith attended a house in south London which was allegedly used by a VIP paedophile ring.

Statements released by the force in 2013 and 2014 claimed that officers had “established” that the late Liberal MP, who was known to be a child abuser, had visited Elm Guest House in Barnes, south-west London.

That claim has been repeated by campaigners who believe there is evidence of a cover-up of abuse at the home dating back 30 years.

But a statement released by the Met to the Guardian on Thursday removed the claim, casting doubt on whether the late MP for Rochdale was ever there. A Met spokesman said he could not “reaffirm” that the Met still believed that Smith attended the south London home.

It is understood that the original police assertion that Smith attended the home was based on the word of a single witness. That same witness has now made allegations of misconduct against police officers, a source said.

However, late on Friday night, following the Guardian’s publication of the story, the Met released another statement saying that its 2013 claim that Smith visited the premises had not been withdrawn.

On the same day the man at the centre of allegations of a Westminster paedophile ring was forced to stand down from the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (CSA).

Peter McKelvie – an original source of information to Labour MP Tom Watson before he made explosive allegations in the Commons in 2012 about a VIP paedophile ring “linked to parliament and No 10”– resigned as a member of the advisory panel to Justice Lowell Goddard’s inquiry on Friday.

He quit amid concerns raised about a conflict of interest between his role as an advisory panel member and his role as the source of many of the allegations of child abuse by prominent individuals the inquiry may investigate.

It follows the previous week’s Panorama programme, which questioned many of the claims of VIP paedophile rings.

Claims of a ring at Elm Guest House have been widely circulated across the world’s media. Prominent British men were alleged to have attended the guest house in the 1980s to abuse young boys who had been plied with alcohol.

Many of the claims originate from Chris Fay, a campaigner for the National Association of Young People in Care, who told the BBC he had written down a “guest list” of VIP paedophiles who attended the guest house. Names on the list include Smith, Harvey Proctor and Leon Brittan.

Smith’s presence at the home was a vital piece of evidence to those convinced that a paedophile ring existed because both police and prosecutors said in 2012 that he should have been prosecuted for abusing many young boys.

Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative MP and London mayoral contender whose Richmond Park constituency includes the guest house, told MPs in November that he had been “reliably told” that 12 boys gave evidence in 1982 that they had been abused at Elm Guest House.

To a hushed Commons, Goldsmith said: “The Met has since confirmed that Cyril Smith visited ... It is impossible to believe there was not a cover-up.”

This week, a spokesman for the Met confirmed that Goldsmith’s claims were based on a statement that was released to the media in 2013 and 2014. It read: “The investigation has established that Cyril Smith visited the premises.”

However, the Met released a new statement on Thursday which makes no mention of Smith.

Zac Goldsmith urged to withdraw paedophile ring allegations Read more

“Operation Athabasca [the new police inquiry into Elm House] is an investigation into an allegation of historic sexual abuse at Elm Guest House in the 1980s. No arrests. Inquiries continue,” it says.

Goldsmith is facing calls to withdraw claims about MPs involved in abuse at the home. He has refused to do so.

McKelvie’s resignation came after after it emerged in a report on Channel 4 News that he had written to the prime minister in May and spoken to Goddard, to complain about the appointment of a minister – who has not been publicly named – in the new Conservative administration. The minister’s appointment, he said, represented “contempt for survivors of child sexual abuse”.

But it emerged this week that the minister in question had been cleared of any involvement in anything criminal by the police in 2012. Though he has never been named, he is understood to be one of the individuals at the centre of the original claims made by Watson that a paedophile ring operated at the heart of Westminster.

McKelvie said in a statement on Friday: “I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that it would not be appropriate for me to continue in my role as a member of the victims and survivors consultative panel on the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.

“I have today been advised that I am likely to be required as a witness in the inquiry’s investigations, and that the inquiry may need to examine my work in pursuing allegations of CSA. In those circumstances it would not be right for me to continue to act in a consultative capacity, providing advice to the chair and the inquiry panel.”

The Met revealed in a report on Friday that it failed to end the rape investigation into Brittan and inform him while he was still alive, because the force was afraid “a decision to take no further action in respect of this allegation would … have resulted in media criticism and public cynicism”.

The Met said detectives decided in November 2014 – after Brittan had been interviewed under caution, and after an identity procedure had been conducted with the complainant – that there was not a strong case against the former minister, and the evidential threshold to recommend charges had not been passed. But instead of ending the investigation, it tried to get the Crown Prosecution Service to review its decision because of the “highly unusual circumstances where the previous independence of the police to tackle sexual offending by VIPs had been publicly called into question”.

The CPS refused to review the decision, saying it was not policy to review a file in which the police had found there was insufficient evidence to charge. For months senior Met officers argued with the CPS, but Brittan was never informed the police had decided no further action should be taken against him.

It was not until this month – more than two years after the police first concluded in September 2013 there was no case against Brittan – that Brittan’s family were informed the investigation had turned up no evidence to support the rape allegation.