Professor Alexis Jay, who exposed the Rotherham sex abuse scandal, has emerged as the favourite to take over the Government’s chaotic child sex abuse inquiry.
The former social worker, who currently sits on the inquiry’s panel, is understood to be willing to consider taking on the role if approached by Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary.
Professor Jay is widely respected among survivor’s groups and having been brought up in a tenement in Edinburgh, by a single parent, has none of the establishment links that have tripped up previous heads.
Baroness Butler-Sloss, who was the first chairman, resigned within days after questions were raised over her handling of an earlier inquiry into abuse in the Church of England.
Her replacement, Dame Fiona Woolf, the former Lord Mayor of the City of London, subsequently stepped down after it emerged that she had dined on several occasions with Lord Brittan, the former Home Secretary, who had faced a number of allegations of child abuse, none of them proven, but who at the time was likely to come under the inquiry’s scrutiny.
Some of those who are taking part in the inquiry have called for Professor Jay to be appointed on a temporary basis until a permanent chairman can be found, but under the terms of the Inquiries Act, there is no provision for an interim head.
Professor Jay chairs the Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland, having worked in social services for 30-years.
She also led the independent inquiry into child sex exploitation in Rotherham which exposed the terrible scale of abuse in the town and the failure of the police and the local authority to tackle it.
Peter Saunders, the founder of the National Association of People Abused in Childhood, said: "I think Alexis Jay would make an excellent chairman of the inquiry.
"She did an outstanding job on the Rotherham inquiry, she has got a lot of experience as a social worker and has got the respect of everyone I have met. But obviously this is a decision for the Home Sectretary, who I am sure will have been doing a lot of homework in order to make sure she gets this right."
Phil Johnson, spokesman for the Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors group said: “Alexis Jay has got a good track record in investigating major abuse cases and she has no links with the establishment.
“My question would be whether she would be robust enough to deal with the vast scale of the inquiry. It is going to be very challenging to try to find someone to chair this inquiry, if indeed it is to carry on in its current form.”