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| Child abuse inquiry counsel Ben Emmerson QC suspended | Child abuse inquiry counsel Ben Emmerson QC suspended |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The most senior lawyer working for the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse in England and Wales has been suspended from duty. | The most senior lawyer working for the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse in England and Wales has been suspended from duty. |
| The inquiry said it had "become very concerned about aspects" of Ben Emmerson QC's leadership of his team. | The inquiry said it had "become very concerned about aspects" of Ben Emmerson QC's leadership of his team. |
| Mr Emmerson said he was "unable" to comment at this time. | |
| The inquiry said press suggestions Mr Emmerson was considering resigning after raising disagreements over its future direction were untrue. | The inquiry said press suggestions Mr Emmerson was considering resigning after raising disagreements over its future direction were untrue. |
| In a statement, it said: "They are not a matter on which he has advised the chair or panel." | In a statement, it said: "They are not a matter on which he has advised the chair or panel." |
| It said he had been suspended so matters "can be properly investigated". | |
| The inquiry was set up in 2014 to examine whether public bodies including the police have failed in their duty to protect children from sexual abuse. It will also examine claims of abuse involving "well-known people". | The inquiry was set up in 2014 to examine whether public bodies including the police have failed in their duty to protect children from sexual abuse. It will also examine claims of abuse involving "well-known people". |
| The Times had reported that Mr Emmerson had wanted to reduce the inquiry's workload, but its recently-appointed chairwoman, Professor Alexis Jay, and Home Secretary Amber Rudd both said its scope would not be changed. | |
| Mr Emmerson, who represented the widow of Alexander Litvinenko at the inquiry into the Russian dissident's death from radiation poisoning, is a deputy High Court judge, a visiting professor of human rights law at Oxford University and a leading international lawyer. | |
| Four chairwomen | |
| The inquiry has been beset by a series of problems since it was originally announced by then Home Secretary Theresa May. | |
| Prof Jay is the fourth person appointed to lead the investigation, | |
| She was appointed after its third chairwoman, New Zealand judge Justice Lowell Goddard, resigned in August this year, citing the "magnitude" of the inquiry and the "legacy of failure" from its beginnings. | |
| An attempt to start the inquiry in 2014 was abandoned after two proposed chairwomen resigned. | |
| Baroness Butler-Sloss, stood down after just a week in July 2014, saying she was "not the right person" for the job. MPs and victims had raised concerns about her appointment because her brother, Sir Michael Havers, was attorney general at the time of some of the allegations being investigated. | |
| Her replacement Dame Fiona Woolf resigned following questions over her links to establishment figures. |