Sir Cliff Richard's lawyers have criticised a Commons committee for publishing a letter about the police investigation into sex abuse allegations against the veteran singer.
In a letter to MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Committee, the star's representatives said Thursday's disclosure was "unnecessary" and caused him "a further round of unnecessary and extremely damaging media coverage with no due process".
Earlier this week a letter from South Yorkshire's chief constable emerged in which he said the police investigation into Sir Cliff has "increased significantly in size" and involves "more than one allegation".
The letter from Gideon Benaim, of Michael Simkins LLP, said: "Plainly, it was not necessary for the SYP letter to be published on any urgent basis, if at all.
"The SYP letter appears to have been in the hands of the committee for a period of two weeks or more before it was proactively sent to media organisations, presumably to encourage widespread publicity.
"There was ample time to properly consider whether the SYP letter ought to have been released before it actually was."
He added that proactively sending the letter to the media "exposed" Sir Cliff to a "further round of unnecessary and extremely damaging media coverage, with no due process."
He added that the singer had not been allowed to comment or make submissions to MPs before publication, which would have allowed him to mitigate any possible fall-out.
The lawyer pointed out his client had neither been arrested or charged.
South Yorkshire Police.
The letter addressed the police's disclosure that there is "more than one allegation", saying the "information that has been provided to our client about the new allegations is so scarce it is difficult to comment meaningfully".
It went on: "Late on Friday 6 February, BCL telephoned one of the lead officers on the investigation. During the course of that call, the officer told BCL that there was now more than one complaint (albeit a small number). Very little substantive detail was disclosed."
It also questioned the claim that the investigation has "increased significantly", saying: "This phrasing is curious and seems to us to be - at best - a loose use of language and at worst to be unnecessarily emotive.
Sir Cliff has said the claims against him were "absurd and untrue" and he had "never, in my life, assaulted anyone".
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