Nick Clegg: I had no inkling of Sir Cyril Smith’s 'repugnant actions'

Nick Clegg today said he never would have praised Cyril Smith had he known about the former MP’s “repugnant actions”.

The Liberal Democrat Leader said the idea that he had known about allegations that Smith had molested boys and done nothing about them was “absurd”.

Speaking on his weekly LBC Radio show, the Deputy Prime Minister said: “Do you really think I would have praised Cyril Smith when he died if I even had an inkling?”

Allegations about Sir Cyril’s behaviour were published in Private Eye in 1979 but Mr Clegg dismissed claims he should have been aware of the rumours about the former Rochdale MP.

Mr Clegg paid tribute to Sir Cyril, his party’s former chief whip, on his 80th birthday in 2008 and again when he died two years later.