Sir Edward Heath Four UK police forces investigating child sex abuse claims involving former PM

PHOTO: Sir Edward was prime minister from 1970 to 1974

Four separate police forces are now known to be looking into allegations of child sexual abuse involving former British prime minister Sir Edward Heath.

Fresh allegations have emerged about the now deceased Sir Edward, with a number of people already responding to police appeals for information.

Police on the Channel Island of Jersey have confirmed the former Conservative prime minister features in its ongoing investigation into allegations.

Sir Edward, who died in 2005, is also believed to be in the scope of Operation Midland, the sweeping probe into historical paedophile allegations involving establishment figures.

While Scotland Yard did not confirm the investigation was underway, the senior Labour MP Tom Watson said he knew of claims put before the police.

"Since 2012 I've referred two allegations regarding Edward Heath to the police," he said.

• Prime minister of the UK 1970-1974; leader of the Conservative Party 1965-1975
• During his term he saw the decimalisation of British coinage and reformed Britain's local government system
• Took Britain into the European Economic Community in 1973
• His premiership saw the height of The Troubles in Northern Ireland
• Two miners' strikes in 1972, 1974 proved damaging to the government
• A hung parliament after the 1974 election saw him resign; Labour's Harold Wilson became PM
• In 1975, Margaret Thatcher challenged and defeated Sir Edward and became party leader; he was a critic of Thatcher's policies
• He retired in 2001.
• He was a world-class yachtsman and a musician.
• He never married

"But it's already clear to me, the historic cases, different police services have dealt with investigations differently.

"That's why we need a national police inquiry, not just at regional level."

Kent Police allegedly received a fresh report of sexual assault committed in the 60s where the victim has pointed to the former prime minister.

But it is the inquiry launched by Wiltshire Police that kicked it off.

A British journalist is one of those who has made further extraordinary claims against Sir Edward.

Journalist Don Hale said 30 years ago he was handed a dossier on an alleged Westminster paedophile ring, and shortly after his office was raided by police.

Mr Hale said among the allegations against Sir Edward concerned the whereabouts of boys from care homes who went yachting with the politician.

"He was basically recruiting boys from Jersey to go on adventure sailing trips with him at weekends on his boat Morning Cloud and there was all sorts of allegations against him in terms of what may have happened to these boys taken from care homes in Jersey," he said.

"There were claims that some of these boys didn't come back."