In later years, Smith's public esteem was considerably marred by the allegation that he had been involved in a cover-up of a health risk at a local asbestos factory.

[citation needed] As early as 1979, a local underground magazine, the Rochdale Alternative Press, alleged that in the 1960s Smith had spanked and sexually abused teenage boys in a hostel he co-founded.

In November 2012, Greater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood said there was "overwhelming evidence" that young boys were sexually and physically abused by Smith.

Public authorities including Rochdale Borough Council, the police, and British intelligence services have been implicated in covering up Smith's alleged crimes.

In February 2017, Greater Manchester Police reported that their investigation into historical child sex abuse at the former Knowl View School in Rochdale, requested by the Home Office in 2014, had found no evidence of a cover-up or corruption.

"[7] Smith lived with his mother Eva, grandmother and two half-siblings, Eunice and Norman, in a one-up one-down cottage (demolished in 1945) on Falinge Road.

In her work as a cleaner at the town hall, Smith's mother was banned from entering the police station – likewise based in the building – because she would search through its bins for information to help her son.

[16] Smith's mayoral duties were filmed for the BBC's Man Alive documentary series, in an episode titled "Santa Claus for a Year".

In 1966, Smith resigned the Labour whip when the party refused to vote for an increase in council house rents and sat with four other councillors as independents until 1970.

[20] Speaking to Granada Television in 2003, David Steel reflected on events in the 1970s with the conclusion: "Cyril was not an ideal Chief Whip because he did not handle a crisis well and had a tendency to say anything to a news camera.

In 1980, Smith described UK unemployment figures of two million jobless people as "a disgrace", stating: "They represent a sick society, and are not acceptable to live with.

[28] After David Alton's 1988 bill to reduce the time limit for abortions was talked out by MPs, he referred to other members as "murderers in the womb".

[29] In 2008, the New Statesman accused Smith of improper conduct in his connection with the company Turner & Newall (T&N), which was based in his constituency, and was once the world's largest manufacturer of materials using asbestos.

[30] In the summer recess of 1981, Smith wrote to Sydney Marks, head of personnel at T&N, informing him that EEC regulations were coming up for debate in the next parliamentary session.

[20] Interviewed in September 2008 by a local BBC news programme, Smith responded to the claims he had helped cover up the dangers of asbestos as "absolute rubbish".

[34] After leaving Westminster and the death of his mother Eva in 1994, Smith was invited by a lifelong friend, a public relations manager at the Cunard Line, to become a guest lecturer on the cruise liner Queen Elizabeth 2.

[43] Smith made many popular television appearances: he sang "She's a Lassie from Lancashire" on his friend Jimmy Savile's early-1970s TV show Clunk Click,[44] appeared in an advert for a "greatest hits" album by 1980s pop group Bananarama,[45] and sang a duet with Don Estelle in a 1999 recording of the Laurel and Hardy song "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine".

[51] In May 1979, a local underground magazine, the Rochdale Alternative Press, alleged that in the 1960s Smith had spanked and sexually abused teenage boys in a hostel he co-founded.

[60] Neal said that he lost two front teeth and needed stitches to a head wound after Smith assaulted him for refusing to eat a potted meat sandwich.

[64][65] Greater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood said: "Although Smith cannot be charged or convicted posthumously, from the overwhelming evidence we have it is right and proper we should publicly recognise that young boys were sexually and physically abused".

[66] On 28 November 2012, an alleged victim waived his right to anonymity in a television interview with Sky News to say that he was sexually abused by Smith at a council-run residential special school.

Chris Marshall broke down in tears during his interview when describing the sexual abuse he said took place at Knowl View school in Rochdale in the early 1980s.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said: "I am deeply shocked and horrified by these terrible allegations and my thoughts are with the victims who had the courage to speak out".

Robinson said that he was asked by MI5 to send to London a police dossier that had been kept in a safe in his office which he said was "thick" with allegations from boys claiming they had been abused by Smith.

[70] In January 2013, The Independent on Sunday reported that police were investigating claims that Smith sexually abused boys at the London guest house.

Following allegations published in 1979, Steel said that Smith confessed to spanking boys and conducting intimate "medical examinations" on them but was allowed to remain as a Liberal MP.

"[82] In June 2014, Detective Chief Superintendent Russ Jackson of Greater Manchester Police admitted the force's previous investigations into abuse linked to Smith at Rochdale Knowl View residential school "fell well short" of what would be expected today.

[85] In July 2014, Rochdale council's inquiry into child abuse linked to Smith at Knowl View residential school was halted at the request of police.

The alleged incident took place in 1988 at a house in Stockport after a complaint that the occupant had committed a lewd act in his window in front of a newspaper boy.

[95] The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse published a Cambridge House, Knowl View and Rochdale Investigation Report in April 2018.