Today at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) Lord Steel has admitted under oath that Cyril Smith confessed to him in 1979 that the child abuse allegations against him were true. Steel admitted he still did nothing about it, and made no effort to investigate whether Smith posed any continuing risk to children. Despicable.

Yet on Newsnight last year Steel described the allegations as “scurrilous hearsay” and that he did not know if Cyril Smith was guilty of abuse. That can’t be compatible with what he said today. In In 1988 Lord Steel, know what he did, put Cyril Smith forward for a knighthood. Shameful.

UPDATE: See page 126 in the Inquiry transcript for detail.