UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian
Peter Walker Political correspondent
@peterwalker99
Wednesday 19 October 2016
Theresa May has rejected claims that the Home Office failed to act early enough on concerns about the leadership of the national child abuse inquiry, telling prime minister’s questions it could not be expected to respond to “suspicion, rumour or hearsay”.
May was placed under pressure after it emerged on Tuesday that a member of the abuse inquiry panel raised worries about the then inquiry chair, Dame Lowell Goddard, with the director general of the Home Office in April this year. May was still home secretary at the time.
The home affairs select committee also heard that relations between leading panel members and Goddard, who resigned in August, were so bad a professional facilitator had been brought in.
One of May’s officials told the committee that the Home Office first heard of the worries about Goddard only six days before she stepped down.
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