Met 'pays £100,000 to Lord Bramall and Lady Brittan over bungled abuse probe'

Lord Bramall and Lady Brittan have received a reported £100,000 in compensation from Scotland Yard over its doomed VIP sex abuse probe.

The Metropolitan Police raided the homes of D-Day veteran and former head of the Army Lord Bramall and the late ex-home secretary Lord Brittan during the 16-month Operation Midland inquiry.

But the force faced a storm of criticism over the £2.5 million investigation into claims made by a single accuser, known only as "Nick", of a high-level paedophile ring linked to Westminster.

It closed without a single arrest and, after a scathing review found there were "numerous errors", the Independent Police Complaints Commission opened an investigation into a detective chief inspector and two junior detectives over allegations they may have misled a district judge in order to obtain search warrants.

A spokeswoman for the Met said: "We can confirm the Met has reached a settlement with Lord Bramall and Lady Brittan."

But she declined to confirm the amount of the award and said she had no information on any settlement with former Conservative MP Harvey Proctor, who has been a fierce critic of the force since the probe collapsed and he was cleared.

The Daily Telegraph said the figure paid out was £100,000 and the settlements included confidentiality clauses.

Former Met Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe apologised to those named during the probe, while Lord Bramall spoke of his anger that his wife died before he had been cleared.

And Lady Brittan hit out after it emerged police decided her husband had no case to answer but failed to tell him before he died of cancer.