Thatcher's bodyguard says he warned her about underage sex rumours about close aide amid claims senior ministers were named in dossier

• Barry Strevens says he told Iron Lady about rumours about Peter Morrison 
• Thatcher listened during No.10 meeting, but went on to promote her aide
• New claims emerged about dossier handed to Home Secretary Leon Brittan
• Reports ministers Keith Joseph and Rhodes Boyson were named 

By MATT CHORLEY, MAILONLINE POLITICAL EDITOR

PUBLISHED: 12:06 GMT, 27 July 2014 | UPDATED: 15:37 GMT, 27 July 2014

Margaret Thatcher and her ministers were warned of child abuse claims against senior Tory figures in the 1980s, it was claimed today.

A former bodyguard to the Iron Lady revealed he told her to her face about rumours about one of her closest aides holding parties with underage boys.

And it was claimed a dossier on Establishment abuse handed to then-Home Secretary Leon Brittan named senior ministers Sir Keith Joseph and Sir Rhodes Boyson.

Westminster has been rocked by claims of senior politicians involved in sex abuse, and allegations of a cover-up.

Home Secretary Theresa May ordered a wide-ranging inquiry into how successive governments, charities, political parties, the NHS, the BBC and the Church failed to protect children from paedophiles.

But its chairman Baroness Butler-Sloss was forced to quit over criticism that her brother, Sir Michael Havers, had been attorney general in the Cabinet in the 1980s, and was accused of a 'cover-up' over a refusal to prosecute Foreign Office diplomat Sir Peter Hayman, who was a member of the Paedophile Information Exchange.

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