Westminster "Chumocracy" Has Protected Itself from Paedophile Revelations, Claims Cameron's Advisor on Child Abuse

By Tom Mctague
Daily Mail
July 11, 2014

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2688622/Westminster-chumocracy-protected-paedophile-revelations-claims-Cameron-s-advisor-child-abuse.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

David Cameron's advisor on child abuse Claire Perry said there was a 'chumocracy' in Westminster looking to protect itself from paedophile claims

David Cameron's advisor on child abuse has lashed out at the Westminster 'chumocracy' that has protected itself from allegations of paedophilia.

Tory junior minister Claire Perry said Parliament was full of 'too many people with the same interests and the same out-of-touch sense of entitlement coming together to protect their own'.

Her damning remarks come amid allegations that a paedophile network was operating in Westminster and was being protected by senior politicians.

Home Secretary Theresa May this week launched an inquiry into organisations including churches, the security services and the BBC.

A separate review will also examine the failures in Westminster to properly investigate allegations of sexual abuse.

It came after it emerged last week that an explosive dossier of papers allegedly naming high-profile child abusers in Westminster had been handed to the Home Office in the 1980s - but had since gone missing.

Miss Perry, the MP for Devizes, questioned why it has taken so long to take the allegations seriously.

Writing in her local newspaper The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald she said: 'Why has it taken so many years for allegations to be believed and action to be taken?

'Part of the problem can be traced, in my view, to the ‘chumocracy’ that for too long has been at the heart of the so-called Establishment, consisting of too many people with the same interests and the same out-of-touch sense of entitlement coming together to protect their own.

'It is this sort of persistent ‘otherness’ that so many of us are determined to change, to make the system more representative, more real and more normal. Some may say we have not succeeded yet but we will keep on trying.'

Miss Perry added: 'The other, and more worrying part of the problem is the way that the voices of victims were ignored for so long – children told to keep quiet, ridiculed, or threatened – with tragically the most vulnerable of all being more likely to be targeted for abuse.

'That, to me, is the real scandal and we must do all we can to make sure that when victims speak out they are heard and action is taken.”