In 2018 he called for Richard Farnell, the former leader of Rochdale Council to be prosecuted for perjury when he was found to have lied under oath to the inquiry.
He said that staff attitudes in the council had improved but that Rochdale political culture was still stuck in a backwards time warp and remained in desperate need of reform.
[6] David Steel was suspended from his membership of the Liberal Democrat Party in 2019 after he admitted to the inquiry that he had known about Cyril Smith's child abuse.
[7] He criticised the Church of England saying that it had orchestrated years of institutional cover-up and denial and could not be trusted to put its own house in order.
He called for an independent body to be set up which could investigate allegations of abuse and override bishops who were unwilling to comply with their responsibilities.