The BBC has uncovered a letter sent by former Rochdale MP Cyril Smith in which he asked it not to investigate the “private lives of certain MPs”.

The letter, written in 1976 and sent to the then Director General Charles Curren will fuel claims of a cover up over allegations of alleged abuse of children in Rochdale.

In another letter, Smith urged the then Home Secretary, Merlyn Rees, to ensure the BBC was not using public money for “muck-raking”.

He wrote: “Frankly, I am fed up of the filth, innuendo and stirring that has gone on for the last six months or so about MPs in all three political parties, and I really do think the time has come for something to be published, or for the thing to come to an end.”

The letters come just months after Rochdale’s current Simon Danczuk and Matthew Baker released their book Smile for the Camera, tells the story of how Cyril Smith rose from poor beginnings to become a dominating political figure in the Northwest and nationally.

More importantly, it details how he used his extraordinary profile to conceal a spectacular abuse of power: systematically grooming and sexually abusing young boys, often in care homes he helped to establish.

There had always been rumours concerning Smith.Rochdale parents would threaten misbehaved children with a visit from ‘Uncle Cyril’.

However, a charmer and a bully with an iron grip on his town, his misdemeanours were never prosecuted. Those who tried found their operations mysteriously shut down by higher authorities. Consequently, Smith retired from politics in 1992 and died in his sleep in 2010. Many of his victims later committed suicide or drifted into a life of drug abuse or prison.

A Channel Four documentary last year revealed that in the late 1960s Lancashire police carried out several investigations into Smith’s behaviour, compiling an 80-page file.However, veiled threats from local liberals meant the case was dropped and the file locked away in a safe at Special Branch, which has responsibility for national security. Labour MP Jack McCann, Smith’s predecessor as MP for Rochdale, also spoke to the DPP on Smith’s behalf.

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