The British government faced growing calls today for a national inquiry into alleged child abuse that may have involved lawmakers in the 1970s and 1980s, after it emerged that 114 files relating to the accusations were missing.
The claims have surfaced after revelations of child abuse by prominent celebrities, fuelling calls for an over-arching inquiry into past sex violations.
The allegations of child abusers in Westminster centre on a dossier given to the interior ministry in 1983 by Geoffrey Dickens, a Conservative MP and campaigner against child abuse.
But that file is missing.
Today, Britain's Home Office revealed that in total, 114 files relating to child abuse allegations were "presumed destroyed, missing or not found".
The Home Secretary of the time Leon Brittan, forced to defend his handling of the Dickens dossier, said he had handed all relevant information onto officials for investigation.
The interior ministry said a senior legal figure would carry out a fresh review of how the office dealt with the Dickens dossier.
The issue comes at a sensitive time for David Cameron's coalition government as the prime minister prepares to contest an election in 2015.
Norman Tebbit, a prominent Conservative who held a series of senior posts in government in the 1980s told the BBC there "may well" have been a cover-up.
"At that time I think most people would have thought that the establishment, the system, was to be protected and if a few things had gone wrong here and there that it was more important to protect the system than to delve too far into it," Tebbit said.
The comments by one of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's closet allies fuelled demands for a wide-ranging inquiry into child abuse allegations in the era.
"We need an overarching review led by child protection experts," the opposition Labour party's Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said in an open letter.
"Any stones left unturned will leave concerns of institutional malaise, or worse a cover-up, unaddressed."
A public petition launched today by a Labour MP to demand a independent national inquiry into the allegations of child abuse by senior politicians attracted over 35,000 signatures.
Some politicians have warned against digging up past abuse claims, with Conservative MP David Mellor, who served under Brittan in the interior ministry in the 1980s, saying there was a risk of a "witch hunt".
