THE former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell has distanced himself from comments in which he spoke of being "very proud" of his association with paedophile MP Cyril Smith, with whom he shared an office at Westminster.
In 2011 he described the Rochdale MP as "one of the most remarkable people in politics I ever met".
The remarks were made a year after Smith's death, as Campbell unveiled a memorial blue plaque to him on Rochdale Town Hall.
But Sir Menzies insisted to the Sunday Herald last week that he had "minimal" contact with the Rochdale MP when they shared an office and had no inkling about allegations of abuse.
A video of the 2011 event, which was also attended by Labour MPs, is now on YouTube.
In it, Campbell says: "He was a big man, Cyril, but I think of him as a big-hearted man, because in everything he did 105%.
"That's why it's quite right and proper that here, in the community he loved and the community that loved him, we should recognise him in the way we're about to do today."
The plaque was removed a year later to prevent it being vandalised after six people claimed Smith indecently assaulted them as youngsters.
Asked how he felt now, Campbell said: "I most certainly would not have made those remarks. I wouldn't have accepted the invitation.
"I very much regret that anyone is subject to abuse of this kind, and I regret that it happened to these individuals.
"Inevitably my view of Cyril Smith has since changed by what we now know."
Greater Manchester Police are now investigating Smith's activities at Rochdale's Knowl View School, where he was a governor in the 1970s.
A new book by Rochdale's current Labour MP, Simon Danczuk, claims 29-stone Smith was able to abuse children as young as eight, despite more than 100 complaints by victims, because of a cover-up by police, council officials and MI5. The Labour mayor of Rochdale in the 1960s, Smith was the town's Liberal MP from 1972 to 1992.
As the newly elected MP for North East Fife, Campbell shared a room in the House of Commons with Smith and MP Alex Carlile - now LibDem peer Lord Carlile - from 1987 to 1992.
Campbell said: "In the course of five years, Cyril Smith only came to that office about a dozen times because his health was very, very poor and he came once every four or five months.
"So my contact with him was very, very minimal."
Campbell, who says he only learned of the abuse allegations very recently, added: "It wasn't something that people talked about. I never saw anything in this limited contact that I had with him that alerted me to anything of that kind."
One of Campbell's predecessors as LibDem leader, the former Holyrood Presiding Officer Sir David Steel, last week confirmed he had asked Smith in 1979 about abuse allegations dating from the 1960s, but had found nothing untoward about his later behaviour as an MP.
Smith's family have said he always denied abuse allegations when he was alive and that they are saddened allegations are being made when he cannot defend himself.
However, the family have said they will continue to co-operate with all investigations.
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