Detectives investigating allegations of a paedophile ring with links to Westminster are now examining connections to a possible murder, the Metropolitan Police has said.

Scotland Yard launched Operation Fairbank two years ago to probe suggestions that high profile political figures had been involved in organised child sex abuse in the 1970s and 1980s.

But now officers have set up a new strand of the inquiry, named Operation Midland, after being passed information about alleged murders that may have been connected with the paedophiles.

It is understood there are no confirmed identities for the suspected victims and no bodies at this stage, meaning the Metropolitan Police have only been willing to describe the investigation as examining a “possible murder”.