article_snippet.sent: Nick Clegg was accused on a radio phone-in of having 'washed Nick Clegg hands' of the issue by refusing to order a party investigation into Cyril Smith.
article_snippet.sent: Nick Clegg insisted there would be no inquiry despite revelations in Saturday's Daily Mail that the Liberal party – a forerunner to the Lib Dems – offered hush money equivalent to a month's wages to an activist after an activist complained about Cyril Smith molesting a teenage boy in 1979.
article_snippet.sent: Nick Clegg was confronted over the Smith scandal during a phone-in show on LBC radio yesterday.
article_snippet.sent: Nick Clegg was asked by 'John from Bexleyheath' why the Lib Dems had not investigated despite new details of Cyril Smith's prolific paedophilia exposed in this paper's serialisation of Labour politician Simon Danczuk's book about the late Rochdale MP.
article_snippet.sent: Nick Clegg attempted to distance the Lib Dems from Cyril Smith and said 'any political party' should co-operate with the police inquiry.
article_snippet.sent: Nick Clegg said the only way to get justice was for the police to investigate and blamed the police for not having done so.