Ex-Home Secretary Leon Brittan is being unfairly "pilloried" over his handling of a missing dossier on alleged paedophile politicians in the 1980s on the basis of a "witch hunt", former minister David Mellor has said.
The document was passed by Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens to Lord Brittan, who says he in turn handed it to officials.
Mr Mellor said the file was spoken of at the time as "not very substantive".
David Cameron has tasked a top official to "find answers" about what happened.
Labour has called for a review into what happened to the dossier and the Home Office has faced calls to explain why it was not "retained" by officials.
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End Quote Ed Miliband Labour leaderWe need to understand what happened to that information"
Lord Brittan says he also alerted the director of public prosecutions.
Mr Mellor defended Lord Brittan, whom he served under as a home office minister in the 1980s.
'Witch hunt'Speaking on his LBC radio show, he said he remembered "sort of chat around the department" that it "wasn't a very substantive thing at all".
"People are talking about this document as if it's a carefully worked through expose of people. There's no reason to think it was," he said.
David Mellor served under Lord Brittan in the 1980s He rejected criticisms over the way Lord Brittan dealt with the document.
"I think it is so unfair that on the basis of what is becoming a witch hunt, he's being pilloried for handling a document... that he did pass on," Mr Mellor said.
No 10 has rejected calls for a public inquiry into child sex abuse claims, but the prime minister said it was "right" to make investigations.
He tasked senior civil servant Mark Sedwill to find answers into what happened to the dossier.
Mr Cameron said: "It's right that these investigations are made. We mustn't do anything, of course, that could prejudice or prevent proper action by the police.
"If anyone has any information about criminal wrong-doing they should, of course, give it to the police."
Labour leader Ed Miliband said at the very least, the Home Office needed to have a "serious review" because it was obvious that the information was passed to it.
"We need to understand what happened to that information," Mr Miliband said.
"All of these kind of allegations must be taken very seriously."
David Cameron says the Home Office must "find answers"
The Home Office held an independent review last year into how it handled the dossier.
A letter from Lord Brittan to Mr Dickens was found during the review, saying that the allegations had been acted on.
The review concluded that the "credible" elements of the dossier which had "realistic potential" for further investigation were passed to prosecutors and the police while other elements were either "not retained or destroyed".
Conservative MP Geoffrey Dickens, who died in 1995 Meanwhile, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has called for the entire report to be made public.
She also wants Mr Cameron to set up an overarching review, led by child protection experts, to draw together the results from several different investigations and institutional inquiries.
More than 140 MPs have written to the home secretary calling for "a full, properly resourced investigation into the failure of the police to follow the evidence in a number of historical cases of child sexual abuse".
Mr Dickens, who died in 1995, believed the dossier would "blow the lid off" the lives of powerful and famous child abusers, his son Barry has said.
He old the BBC his father would have been hugely angered that the allegations had not been properly investigated.
Brittan 'being pilloried' over dossier
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