Sun’s Picky MP Paedophile Claim

That the Sunday Sun has made a claim of improper behaviour against a Labour MP is not new news; that its account has managed to miss a number of details, while making a series of hints about the supposedly anonymous target, certainly is. Once again, the author is the paper’s political editor David Wooding, and as so often with the Murdoch press, you have to look elsewhere for the full story.

“NEW CHILD SEX SCANDAL ROCKS PARLIAMENT AS SENIOR LABOUR MP ACCUSED OF SICKENING OFFENCES … Cops given details of string of allegations involving young boys by two fellow MPs” screams the Sun headline, going on to tell “Horrified MPs have called in police after receiving information that a top Labour politician is a paedophile who preys on young boys - and has a liking for ‘young ragamuffins’”.

There is, as might be expected with the Sun, more: “Detectives have been passed details of a string of alleged offences spanning at least twelve years. It is the latest in a series of sex abuse scandals to rock Westminster - and the most serious because the accused is still a serving MP. Two other MPs independently reported the former minister to police after being shocked by information they had received”.

Somewhat later in the article, readers are told “The latest allegations will intensify demands for a major inquiry into allegations of a Westminster paedophile ring. Police have already been told of vile orgies involving household names abusing youngsters at Dolphin Square flats in the 1990s”. What relevance does this have? Is Wooding using this as code for “he was an MP back then”? The Mail On Sunday’s version suggests he was.

And both the MoS and Guardian confirm that the MP who spoke to the Sun, and whose party affiliation was not revealed in Wooding’s article, is a Tory. Why did the Sun not reveal that to its readers? Why, too, did Wooding not tell that the “very senior Police officer” that MP called was the Chief Constable (the MP also discussed the matter with the relevant Police and Crime Commissioner)? There is yet more the Sun isn’t telling.

Quite apart from how long-serving the “senior Labour MP” is - the MoS mentions that “allegations about the MP … date back to the late 1980s”, the way Wooding words an alleged previous arrest of this man is odd. “Former police officers say he has been arrested before for indecent behaviour and has on occasions assaulted them” says the Sun. The Guardian expands on this: the Tory MP alleged his Labour colleague “had been arrested in the past, including for public indecency in a toilet”.

The MoS version relates “claims that the MP had been arrested for indecency in a public place with a minor – during which he is said to have assaulted the arresting officers”. And the Sun does not give nearly as mush prominence to the Tory MP’s comment, as reported by the Guardian, that “I don’t have any prima facie proof, but”.

That is a very big but. Small wonder the MP at the centre of the allegations “cannot be named for legal reasons”. In the meantime, the reasons for the Sun’s selectivity would make interesting reading - not that we’ll be seeing those any time soon.