Leon Brittan: former Home Secretary dies aged 75

Former Home Secretary Leon Brittan died at the age of 75 last night following a long battle with cancer, his family has announced.

In a statement, his family praised his commitment to British public life as a member of parliament, minister, cabinet minister, European commissioner and peer, as well as his "distinguished" career in law and in business. "We shall miss him enormously," they said.

A private funeral service will be held for family only, with a memorial service to be announced in due course.

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Brittan won the seat of Cleveland & Whitby in 1974 and later became home secretary from 1983 to 1985 in Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet. He also served as chief secretary to the Treasury, trade and industry secretary and vice-president of the European Commission.

But the Daily Telegraph points out that his final years were "tarnished" after he found himself at the centre of the government's child sex abuse inquiry.

Labour MP Simon Danczuk told MPs on the Home Affairs Committee last year that a 40-page dossier accusing eight public figures of being paedophiles had been handed to Brittan when he was in charge of the Home Office in 1983. However, the dossier later disappeared.

An investigation within the Home Office showed that 114 files relating to historic allegations of child sex abuse, from between 1979 and 1999, had disappeared from the department, although the review found Brittan had acted appropriately in dealing with the allegations made in 1983.

In October, Labour MP Jim Hood used parliamentary privilege, which protects Commons comments from libel action, to claim that Brittan had been accused of "improper conduct with children".

At the time, Brittan insisted the claim was "totally inappropriate" and "completely without foundation".