Senior counsel Ben Emmerson quits child sex abuse inquiry after being suspended

The senior lawyer in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has quit, a day after being suspended from his role.

Chairwoman Professor Alexis Jay said she had accepted Ben Emmerson QC’s decision to step down from the post of senior counsel after two years.

Mr Emmerson was suspended on Wednesday night amid reports he was about to resign. His departure was announced just hours after it was revealed his junior colleague Elizabeth Prochaska had also left her role.

In a statement Prof Jay said: “There is no truth in suggestions that he has resigned due to a difference of opinion with me about the next steps for the inquiry.”

Prime Minister Theresa May had earlier said that the “really important” inquiry would go ahead as planned, amid claims that it was in “crisis”.

In his resignation letter, posted on the inquiry’s website, Mr Emmerson said he remained “totally committed to securing a fair and just result for those who matter most, the victims and survivors of childhood abuse”

He said: “Shortly after you took over, you announced a review of the inquiry’s ways of working to identify any changes that may be necessary in the public interest.

“When you decided to re-appoint me as counsel to the inquiry in early September, I had my personal doubts about whether I was genuinely the right person to steer that review process. Since then, it has become clear to me that I am not the person to take this review forward on your behalf.

“It is now time for someone else to take the helm with a different leadership of the counsel team. There is no truth in suggestions that I have resigned due to a difference of opinion with you about the next steps for the inquiry.”

The inquiry has been dogged by controversy since it was set up by Mrs May in 2014 and is already on its fourth chairwoman.

Prof Jay took over after the inquiry was rocked by the sudden resignation as chairwoman of senior New Zealand judge Dame Lowell Goddard, who cited the “legacy of failure” from its beginnings as one of the reasons for standing down.

Raymond Stevenson, from the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association, told the Press Association survivors needed to be “convinced this is not just a circus” following Mr Emmerson’s resignation.

Mr Stevenson, whose group represents those affected by abuse at children’s homes in Lambeth, south London, called for a meeting with Home Secretary Amber Rudd and suggested the inquiry be split up into smaller, separate ones with their own chairman.

He said: “We don’t see it (the inquiry) working in its current form. We didn’t see it working two years ago. It was never going to work, it’s too cumbersome.

“It’s almost like it was set up to fail. People don’t want the truth to come out.”

The inquiry, expected to take five years, will look at various institutions and public figures and scrutinise the police, Crown Prosecution Service, Labour Party and the security and intelligence agencies, as well as people of public prominence associated with Westminster.

Mrs May had earlier backed the inquiry, saying it retained both her and Ms Rudd’s confidence.

Speaking during a visit to Wiltshire, the Prime Minister said: “I set the inquiry up when I was home secretary and the current Home Secretary has made clear the original terms of reference were the right ones and I think that’s important.

“We should always remember why it is that the inquiry was set up in the first place and when those terms of reference were set they were agreed with victims and survivors and it is victims and survivors who are at the heart of this inquiry.”

Before he quit, Mr Emmerson had revealed that no allegations had been put to him and he was left to discover the news of his suspension from the press.

In a statement following Ms Prochaska’s resignation the inquiry said it was aware that recent events were “unsettling, particularly for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse and all those who are engaged with the inquiry’s work”.

It added: “It has been said that the inquiry is in crisis. This is simply not the case, and the chair and panel are united in their determination to see this important work through to a conclusion.”

Labour MP David Winnick, who sits on the Home Affairs Committee, called on Ms Rudd to give a statement to the Commons when it returns on October 10.

He also said Prof Jay and Mr Emmerson should appear before the committee.

He told the Press Association: “A situation has been reached where I think the Home Secretary, given the crisis, should make a statement at the first opportunity to the House.”

Timeline of independent inquiry into child sex abuse

Here are the twists and turns of the troubled independent inquiry into child sex abuse.

• July 7, 2014 – Theresa May, then home secretary, announces a public inquiry to investigate whether “state and non-state institutions” have taken seriously their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse within England and Wales. Its chairwoman will be Baroness Butler-Sloss, a retired High Court judge.
• July 9 – Baroness Butler-Sloss faces calls to quit due to a potential conflict of interest over a family connection. Her late brother, Sir Michael Havers, was attorney general in the 1980s. Then prime minister David Cameron stands by the appointment.
• July 14 – Baroness Butler-Sloss steps down.
• September 5 – Dame Fiona Woolf, a leading tax lawyer and then Lord Mayor of the City of London, is appointed as the new chairwoman of the inquiry.
• October 31 – Dame Fiona quits as chairwoman following questions over her suitability for the role.
• February 4, 2015 – Mrs May disbands the inquiry and sets up a replacement, announcing New Zealand High Court judge Dame Lowell Goddard – described as “one of the most respected and experienced judges in the Commonwealth” – as its chairwoman.
• July 9 – Dame Lowell officially opens the inquiry, saying it will be “the most ambitious public inquiry” ever undertaken in England and Wales.
• March 9, 2016 – Inquiry holds first hearing on the investigation into allegations against Lord Greville Janner, who died the previous December aged 87.
• August 4 – Dame Lowell becomes the third chairwoman to resign.
• August 11 – Former senior social worker Alexis Jay, who led a previous inquiry into sexual exploitation in Rotherham, is named as the inquiry’s fourth chairwoman.
• September 6 – Dame Lowell calls for the inquiry to be overhauled, saying “there is an inherent problem in the sheer scale and size”.
• September 15 – The inquiry announces Professor Jay will earn £185,000 a year for her work, around half that paid to Dame Lowell in 2015/16.
• September 28 – Ben Emmerson QC, counsel to the inquiry, is suspended from duty. A spokeswoman for the inquiry said it had become “very concerned about” aspects of his leadership.

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