New photo piles pressure on head of government abuse inquiry

Fiona Woolf is facing mounting pressure to step down as chair of the Government’s historic child abuse inquiry after it emerged that her list of meetings with former home secretary Lord Brittan and his wife may be incomplete.

As senior Labour and Liberal Democrat figures voiced doubts about whether Mrs Woolf could have the confidence of victims, a photograph (above) surfaced showing her chatting to Lady Brittan at a prize-giving last October.

Home Affairs Select Committee chairman Keith Vaz said he would be writing to raise the omission with the City lawyer, who insisted during an evidence session yesterday that she had “gone the extra distance” to produce an exhaustive list of contacts.

A letter she wrote to Home Secretary Theresa May stated that she had “no social contact with Lord and Lady Brittan since April 23 2013”.

Solicitor Alison Millar, who represents a number of abuse victims whose cases are likely to be raised in the inquiry, said the fact that Mrs Woolf had five dinner parties with Lord Brittan – who denies failing to act on a dossier of paedophilia allegations he received while in office in the 1980s – meant victims could not have faith in her.

“I think this evidence of dinner parties with Lord Brittan really puts her beyond the pale in terms of her credibility with my clients,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Mrs Woolf was appointed last month to chair the panel inquiring into UK institutions’ handling of child sex abuse allegations, after the original nominee Lady Butler-Sloss stepped down because her late brother, Lord Havers, was attorney general during much of the period in question.

However, there has been criticism since it was revealed she has lived on the same London street as Lord Brittan – who is likely to be called to give evidence – for a decade. As well as inviting the Brittans to dinner at her house three times, she has dined at theirs twice, met Lady Brittan for coffee, sat on a prize-giving panel with her, and sponsored her £50 for a fun run.

Mrs May has offered her backing, and Downing Street has said David Cameron is “confident that Fiona Woolf and the panel will carry out their duties to the high standards of integrity required”.

But Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg stopped short of giving his full endorsement this morning, saying only that he had no evidence she had not been thoroughly vetted.

Answering questions after delivering a speech in south London, the Liberal Democrat leader said: “We all need to have confidence that the decisions taken by the Home Secretary … were thorough.

“I have not heard anything that suggests to me the process by which Theresa May made the recommendation is anything other than thorough.”

Lib Dems John Leech and John Hemming have called for Mrs Woolf – the Lord Mayor of London – to step down, and tabled a motion in Parliament to that effect.

Labour has urged Mrs Woolf and Mrs May to meet victims to discuss the situation, and speaking on BBC Radio 4’s World At One, shadow international development secretary Jim Murphy said it appeared “difficult” for her to continue.

“There are of course now real worries. This is the second time on this. None of us want to be having this conversation because these are the most serious allegations about some of the most serious crimes – the sexual abuse and rape of children,” he said.

“The person in charge of this just needs to have the full confidence, not really so much of politicians, but the families that are involved and the victims.

“Unless Fiona Woolf is fully transparent about all her interactions with some of the prominent people in government at the time when these allegations are alleged to have taken place then it is very diffcult to see her being able to serve and fulfil the job that she’s been given.

“We do need to get on with this inquiry, but in a way that the families have confidence, and at the moment that does seem difficult.”

Shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint told BBC2’s Daily Politics: “I just don’t think at this stage it’s viable that she’s the person that leads this and takes it forward.”

Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Committee, which took evidence from Mrs Woolf yesterday, said he was “surprised” there was new information about contacts.

But he appealed for people to “calm down” and give the lawyer a chance to respond to doubts.

“I am surprised that there is new information about the list of meetings Fiona Woolf has had,” he said.

“She gave enormous detail, much more detail than any of us could have given about meetings that took place before. And she said she checked this also in a draft with the Home Office.

“So given that she has put this in the public domain, of course it is important to give her the opportunity, as I will do when I write to her, to ask her why this particular piece of information was missing, and is there anything else that she can help the committee with and therefore the public in respect of other issues.

“In the end she is a very distinguished lawyer and a former president of the Law Society. If she feels that she does not have the confidence of the victims and others then I am sure she will make her decision in her own way.”

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said Mrs Woolf was an “admirable person” and “well equipped in so many ways”.

“She will understand the need to command confidence,” he said.

“We do actually need to get on with this. Going through everybody’s antecedence to find out who they knew, who they didn’t know, who they had been photographed with at some stage ultimately becomes a little bit sterile.”

He added: “Be calm, step back a little bit, give this a little bit of time and see whether this can be made to work.”

Inquiry panel member Sharon Evans – chief executive of the Dot Com Children’s Foundation and a sexual abuse survivor – told Today: “I am very confident that this inquiry can do its job.

“We have Graham Wilmer, who is another victim. We have representatives of HMIC (HM Inspectorate of Constabulary), we have a family law barrister who’s been in care himself.

“I think there’s been so much focus on Fiona Woolf, which I understand, but she is just the head of the panel. There are nine people in total, with an enormous background and expertise in this.”

Former child protection manager Peter McKelvie said abuse survivors had lost faith in the independent inquiry.

He told BBC 2’s Newsnight: “There is just no trust in the whole process, from the appointment of Butler-Sloss up to the appointment of Fiona Woolf, because the one thing survivors wanted this time was a completely independent inquiry not led by anyone who they perceived to be a member of the establishment.”

He added: “I really don’t think they (survivors) will co-operate with this particular process at all.”

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