The Labour leader said the Home Secretary must consult with victims' representatives in the wake of Fiona Woolf’s resignation
Theresa May was tonight urged by Ed Miliband to get on with gathering evidence for the Commons child abuse inquiry after two “botched” bids to find a chief.
The Labour leader said the Home Secretary must act quickly in the wake of Fiona Woolf’s resignation.
He said: “The right thing to do is to consult with victims before names are put forward and once you have done that, it is right to appoint a head of the inquiry.”
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper backed him saying there was a “strong case for the inquiry getting going even without a chair”, without naming a choice of candidate.
Former attorney general Dominic Grieve suggested looking abroad to find a suitable candidate.
A spokesman for Children’s charity the NSPCC said: “Those wanting to kick awkward questions into the long grass must not be allowed to derail justice.”
Criticism was also levelled by a victim of abuse at the Bryn Estyn child abuse scandal in North Wales.
Tony Gregory, 52, of Wrexham, said: “The only way you’ll get someone impartial is someone who is not a Tory or connected with judges or solicitors or MPs.”
But he had little faith that the Home Office would pick a suitable replacement. “They will do it again,” he said. “I should imagine the next one they pick will be in exactly the same sort of position as the last two.”
Mrs May is due to make a statement in the Commons on Monday about the independent inquiry, which was set up to look at how public bodies dealt with historical abuse allegations.
Mrs Woolf was appointed after the resignation of Lady Butler-Sloss in July.
But she quit after questions were raised about her ties to former Home Secretary Lord Brittan who was handed a dossier, now missing, of allegations of paedophile activity involving Westminster MPs in the 1980s.
Anti-paedophile campaigner Tom Watson said the inquiry into historical child abuse must now be put on a statutory footing so witnesses could be compelled, not requested, to attend.
Labour’s John Mann called for Professor Alexis Jay, author of the Rotherham child abuse report, to replace Woolf.
He said: “The Government needs a credible candidate to restore confidence that justice will be done.”
ChildLine founder Esther Rantzen ruled herself out because of criticism she failed to act over Jimmy Savile. The former BBC TV That’s Life presenter, 74, also favoured Professor Jay.
She said: “Survivors need complete faith in whoever chairs the inquiry.”
