The Metropolitan Police "aided and abetted" a fantasist who invented a Westminster VIP paedophile ring and "fanned the flames" of false allegations, a court heard as ‘Nick’ was sent to prison for 18 years.

Officers were accused of encouraging Carl Beech, who at the time the allegations emerged was known by the alias ‘Nick’, to make up a web of lies about some of the country's most high-profile figures.

Sir Bernard Hogan Howe, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner who presided over the inquiry has been urged to return his peerage by Harvey Proctor, one of the victims of the “malicious” witch hunt.

Families of those who have had their names dragged through the mud also called for a fresh inquiry into the actions of the senior police officers, who have been cleared of any wrong-doing by the police watchdog and allowed to retire with full pensions.

It came as Beech, a former NHS manager, was handed what is believed to be the longest ever sentence for perverting the course of justice.