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(not satire – strangely enough)

Actually, when you look at the history – it’s not such a far-fetched theory.

We know for a fact that back in the early 1970s, the police had an extensive file of abuse allegations against Smith.

We also know for a fact that in the 70s the file mysteriously went missing.

A former Special Branch officer says the file was requested by MI5 after which it was never seen again.

None of the above facts are disputed. They’ve all been reported in the mainstream press. Here’s a link to a Telegraph article about it, a publication not generally known for being a hotbed of lefty conspiracy theories.

OK. So Smith was probably protected from prosecution by some elements of the UK security services.

But why would MI5 bother protecting a Rochdale Liberal MP from allegations of child abuse? His downfall could hardly have been a matter of national security.

The answer becomes clear if you know something about the political history at the time.

The general election in 1974 produced the first hung parliament since the Second World War. Although Harold Wilson’s Labour Party had won the most seats – it had failed to get an overall majority.

We now know that in the 1960s and 1970s, certain rogue elements of the security services – who were sympathetic to the Conservative Party and were worried about Soviet influence of UK unions which were bankrolling the Labour Party – had sought to undermine Labour politicians in an operation called ‘Clockwork Orange’.

Again all of this is well-documented and – apart from some of the finer details – pretty much undisputed today.

After the 1974 election, negotiations began between the incumbent Prime Minister Edward Heath’s Conservative Party and Jeremy Thorpes’ Liberals to form a coalition government together.

In 1974, Cyril Smith was one of the leading lights of the Liberals and he most certainly would have been offered a ministerial seat in any Conservative-Liberal coalition government cabinet.

Needless to say, the allegations of abuse the police were preparing against Smith would have scuppered any hopes of a coalition agreement.

And when did the Smith abuse file disappear after MI5 requested it from Special Branch?

Yes, you’ve guessed it.

In 1974 – at the same time Smith’s Liberal Party were negotiating a coalition agreement with the Tories.

It looks suspiciously to me like elements of MI5 decided they were not going to allow negotiations to keep out a Labour government to be scuppered by such a trivial matter as a child abuse scandal involving a probable future cabinet minister.

What do you think?

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For more on the MI5 plot against Harold Wilson and other Labour politicians in the 60s and 70s, see this article by Jonathan Freedland:

Enough of this cover-up: the Wilson plot was our Watergate

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