UNITED KINGDOM
Mail on Sunday
Child abuse inquiry may begin WITHOUT a chairman as Theresa May scrambles to find a replacement for Fiona Woolf
By Tom McTague, Deputy Political Editor for MailOnline and Claire Carter for MailOnline
The Government’s beleaguered inquiry into historic child abuse could be ordered to start work without a chairman following Fiona Woolf’s dramatic resignation last week, William Hague said today.
Mrs Woolf stood down on Friday after victims unanimously attacked her appointment over her links to the Tory peer Leon Brittan, who is accused of failing to act on a dossier of child abuse allegations as Home Secretary in the 1980s.
Her resignation came after the first choice to head up the inquiry, Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, quit the role in July because he late brother Michael Havers was Attorney General in Margaret Thatcher’s government.
Mr Hague said the inquiry could start ‘temporarily even without a chairman’ while a replacement is found.
Speaking on the Andrew Marr show this morning, Mr Hague said inquiry into historic child abuse needed to get underway as soon as possible.
He said: ‘We’re determined that this will happen and will be able to do its work.’
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