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Fiona Woolf resigns as chairman of government’s child abuse inquiry Fiona Woolf resigns as chair of government’s child abuse inquiry
(35 minutes later)
Fiona Woolf has resigned as the chairman of the government’s child abuse inquiry over concerns about her links to the Westminster establishment. Fiona Woolf has resigned as the chair of the government’s child abuse inquiry over concerns about her links to the Westminster establishment.
In a severe embarrassment for the government, the lord mayor of London stepped down after representatives of victims group said they had “unanimously” lost confidence in the process.In a severe embarrassment for the government, the lord mayor of London stepped down after representatives of victims group said they had “unanimously” lost confidence in the process.
Woolf said: “I did not think it was going to be possible for me to chair it without everybody’s support.” Woolf’s links to former home secretary Leon Brittan came under scrutiny because he is likely to be called to give evidence to the inquiry about his handling of child abuse allegations.
Theresa May, the home secretary, said she accepted the resignation with regret, given that she believed Woolf “would have carried out her duties with integrity impartiality and to the highest standard”. Brittan denies failing to act on a dossier of paedophilia allegations he received while in office in the 1980s.
May will make a statement to the Commons on Monday and has promised to personally consult with victims groups, after being criticised for sending officials in her place to a meeting on Friday. On Friday, Woolf said: “I did not think it was going to be possible for me to chair it without everybody’s support.”
The rest of the panel of experts appointed to the inquiry will begin work without a chairman in order to make some progress. She added that it was the views expressed by the victims rather than the “innuendo and negative comment” in the press which “turned the tide” for her.
Woolf had come under pressure over her personal links to former home secretary Leon Brittan, who is likely to be called to give evidence to the inquiry over a dossier allegedly detailing Westminster paedophile activity that vanished from his department in the 1980s. “I am obviously sad that people are not confident in my ability to chair what is a hugely important inquiry impartially,” she said. “I don’t think that it was going to be possible for me to chair it without everybody’s support.”
Survivors of child abuse had called on Woolf at a crucial meeting on Friday to stand down as the second head of the government’s inquiry. Documents published on Thursday showed that a letter setting out Woolf’s contacts with Lord Brittan and his wife was redrafted seven times, with guidance from Home Office officials, before being sent to the home secretary, Theresa May.
It has emerged that the Home Office helped Woolf to redraft a letter seven times detailing her contact with Lord Brittan, in a way that downplayed their meetings. Woolf, who is a former president of the Law Society, detailed in the four-page letter how she had lived in the same road in the capital as Brittan and his wife since 2004 and had been with them at a series of dinner parties.
Woolf, who is a former president of the Law Society, detailed in a four-page letter how she had lived in the same road in the capital as Brittan and his wife since 2004 and had been with them at a series of dinner parties.
As well as inviting the Brittans to dinner at her house three times, she had dined at their home twice, met Lady Brittan for coffee, sat on a prize-giving panel with her, and sponsored her £50 for a fun run.As well as inviting the Brittans to dinner at her house three times, she had dined at their home twice, met Lady Brittan for coffee, sat on a prize-giving panel with her, and sponsored her £50 for a fun run.
May said she accepted the resignation with regret, given that she believed Woolf “would have carried out her duties with integrity, impartiality and to the highest standard”.
The home secretary will make a statement to the Commons on Monday and has promised to personally consult with victims’ groups, after being criticised for sending officials in her place to a meeting on Friday.
The rest of the panel of experts appointed to the inquiry will begin work without a chairman in order to make some progress.
Woolf’s departure is a huge blow for the government after the previous chair of the inquiry, Baroness Butler-Sloss, also had to quit because her late brother, Sir Michael Havers, was attorney general in the 1980s.
She warned that it could now be difficult to find a suitable replacement who was willing to take on the role in the face of intense media scrutiny.
“It is really going to be hard to find someone with no connections. A hermit?” she said.
She added: “This inquiry needs to get on with the job. Above all it needs to report in a time-scale that doesn’t take 10 years.”
Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, welcomed Woolf’s resignation but said the whole process had been “chaotic”.
He told the BBC: “Given the concerns of the victims and the information that was given to the select committee that we released yesterday, it was the right thing to do.
“The real problem in all this has been the process. This is the second head of the inquiry who has gone and I would have thought it would have been better all round if she had made these disclosures at the beginning.
“I think it’s essential that there should be proper scrutiny and [an] open, robust, vigorous, appointment process but also one that, before it even begins, there needs to be full consultation with stake holders for the next name.
“This has been chaotic. Look at the way in which this matter has been dealt with, it has been so badly put together.
“It is wrong for them [the Home Office] to have conducted this process in such a way that two very distinguished women who are path finders in their fields should have had to have resign from the inquiry.”
Alison Millar, head of the abuse team at law firm Leigh Day, which represents victims, said: “We are pleased that Fiona Woolf has stepped down and now the work begins for a proper inquiry which listens to the survivors and supports them in giving their evidence to an experienced panel.
“The terms of reference must be based on the needs of survivors and must cover the scale of abuse which is slowly coming to light across the UK.”