Police inquiry into Sir Edward Heath bankrolled by Home Office, it emerges

The controversial police investigation into Sir Edward Heath is being bankrolled by the Home Office after Amber Rudd signed off on a £1.1 million bailout.

The decision to give Wiltshire police emergency funds was greeted with astonishment by critics of an inquiry branded a “scandalous” waste of public money.

Mike Veale, Wiltshire police’s chief constable, announced yesterday that he will make public a summary report of his force’s two-year investigation into allegations that Heath was a paedophile on October 5, the day after the conclusion of the Tory party conference.

The inquiry was launched with a police  appeal for ‘victims’ to come forward that was made outside Heath’s Salisbury home, Arundells.

Sources have told The Telegraph that the inquiry, costing between £1.5m and £2m, has fallen far short of establishing that Heath was a paedophile but will insist the investigation was justified.

“The report will not make any conclusion on whether Heath was a paedophile,” said a well-placed source. “It is not going to show serious child abuse. It will not substantiate the claims.”

Ms Rudd signed off on the ‘special grant funding’ after a plea for financial support from Mr Veale, who is likely to come under huge pressure to resign.

The Home Office was at pains to point out that the funding was necessary to prevent the Heath inquiry - dubbed Operation Conifer - from impacting on frontline services but that it made “no judgment” on the merit of the inquiry.

The Home Office will give Wiltshire £1.1 million, meaning Operation Conifer will cost the force at least £400,000.

Lord Lawson, a former Conservative Chancellor, said: “The police investigation is absolutely scandalous. It is a waste of public money. It is a shame the Home Office is helping Wiltshire police out.”

Lord Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, writing in yesterday’s Telegraph, accused Mr Veale of presiding over  a “tragi-comedy of incompetence”. He and many others have accused police of traducing the reputation of a man who died over a decade ago and is not alive to defend his reputation.

A Home Office spokesman said: “Following an application from Wiltshire Police for special grant funding, the Home Office has confirmed it will provide up to £1.1 million as a contribution towards the additional costs for Operation Conifer.”

Other child sex abuse inquiries including investigations into scandals in children’s homes in north wales have received similar funds. But other police operations such as Great Manchester’s plea for almost £1.7 million to police fracking protests have been rejected. 

Mr Veale urged the media and public not to speculate on the contents of the summary report until it is published.

Mr Veale said in a statement: “This investigation has followed and complied with national guidance from the outset and throughout and this extends to the publication of the report.

 “The report will include detail of the scale and scope of the investigation, and a summary of its findings. It is important to stress that is not the role of the police to judge the guilt or innocence of people in our criminal justice system.

 “This has been a unique investigation with unprecedented challenges but one we, as the police service, had an obligation to progress in a proportionate and fully accountable manner.”

He said it was wrong for people “to speculate about the veracity of the allegations against Sir Edward Heath”.