UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian
Patrick Wintour
Friday 31 October 2014
The head of the government’s inquiry into historic child sexual abuse allegations repeatedly re-wrote a letter to Theresa May, the home secretary, to play down her links with former home secretary Lord Brittan, it has emerged.
Fiona Woolf has faced calls to resign over her close personal relationship with Brittan, who was in charge of the Home Office in the 1980s when it is alleged there was a coverup at the department of sexual abuse.
The home affairs select committee revealed that a formal letter between Woolf and May was re-written seven times, with Home Office assistance.
Keith Vaz MP, the chairman of the Commons committee, said the re-writes “gave a sense of greater detachment between Lord and Lady Brittan and Mrs Woolf”.
He added that it was extraordinary that the letter had needed to be rewritten seven times.
Even facts about Woolf’s contact with Lord and Lady Brittan appeared to have been amended, he said.
“Mrs Woolf’s letter to the committee raises more questions than it answers about an appointment process that has been chaotic, and a series of exchanges with the Home Office and others, where words, and sometimes even facts, have been amended.
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