UNITED KINGDOM
International Business Times
By Ewan Palmer
January 22, 2015
Labour are calling for the troubled government inquiry into child abuse to be scrapped after developing into a “farce” in the six months since it was set up.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper criticised Theresa May’s review into allegations there was a cover-up of a Westminster paedophile ring in the 1980s as lacking “power and clarity” and said the victims are frequently being “let down”.
The home secretary’s inquiry has got off to a staggered start following the resignation of two of its chairmen – which it has still not replaced – as well as allegations panel members are being “bullied” and the victims voicing their frustrations at the lack of progress.
In response, May said she will make a decision over who will replace Fiona Woolf and Baroness Butler-Sloss as the new chair of the inquiry. She added a recently discovered secret file detailing “unnatural sexual” behaviour at Westminster may be a duplicate of one previously seen by a report led by NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless with Richard Whittam QC.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Cooper urged the inquiry to be relaunched with a new chair and statutory powers.
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