THE Bishop of Durham ordered that the name of a controversial former politician be passed to detectives investigating an alleged establishment paedophile ring.

The Rt Rev Paul Butler, the Church’s lead Bishop for Safeguarding, instructed that police be told of claims about the late Enoch Powell, according to reports in a national newspaper.

Enoch Powell, a Tory and later Ulster Unionist MP who died in 1998 aged 85, is remembered for his “rivers of blood” speech, which he made in Birmingham in April 1968.

In it he warned of what he thought would be the consequences of unchecked immigration from Commonwealth countries to Britain.

According to the Mail on Sunday, Mr Powell’s name was given to Scotland Yard in relation to ‘ritual satanic abuse’.

Mr Powell’s name was passed to the Bishop by a former Bishop of Monmouth, Dominic Walker, who first heard allegations in the 1980s when he was a vicar who counselled young people.

The Bishop is believed to have been told by the former clergyman that at the time he was told of the claims against Mr Powell, unsubstantiated allegations of satanic rituals, which often involved the abuse of children, were widespread, the paper says.

The allegation will be looked at by Operation Fenbridge, one of several investigations being carried into claims that elite figures, including senior politicians, abused children .

A spokesman for the Church of England said that one of its safeguarding advisers passed information to police last June about MPs alleged to be members of a Satanic cult The allegations were made in the 1980s to Dominic Walker who wrote about them to the Rt Rev Butler, the lead Bishop for Safeguarding.

“Dominic Walker was clear that he had no evidence relating to the allegations.

“The allegations referred to membership of satanic cults rather than direct criminal activity,” said the spokesman.

“The extent of the Church of England’s actions in this matter has been to pass these allegations to the police and to confirm to media outlets who approached our Communications Office that we had done so.

“ The Church of England made it clear it was not making any judgment but simply fulfilling its responsibility to pass on information when it is widely known that the police are conducting a serious investigation into the possibility of past abuse by politicians, including the possible cover up of some stories.

“The victims and survivors of abuse would expect us to do no other.”

The spokesman added that the C of E was “committed to full participation” in the Goddard Inquiry into historical child sexual abuse.