MPs have rejected a “totally inappropriate” suggestion from Theresa May, the home secretary, that they should put forward three candidates to be the next chairman of the government’s child abuse inquiry.
May asked for the help of the cross-party Commons home affairs select committee after two previous appointees, Elizabeth Butler-Sloss and Fiona Woolf, resigned over their links to the Westminster establishment.
Keith Vaz, the committee chairman, said it was not their job to identify suitable nominees. He did, however, accept the idea of the committee conducting a pre-appointment hearing to scrutinise the next chosen candidate.
Vaz said in a letter to May: “The committee has now considered your letter of 5 November where you asked us to compile a list of three candidates to be put forward to you. The committee agreed that the best way to proceed would be for you to identify a suitable nominee, as you suggested in your phone call to me, and for us to conduct a pre-appointment hearing in the usual way.
“This would follow the process which is already well established and has been endorsed by the liaison committee. The committee appreciates the difficulties you face, however it was our unanimous view that it would be totally inappropriate for us to make any such suggestions.”
May told the Commons this week that the Home Office was compiling a list of candidates, which may include Michael Mansfield QC, Peter Wanless, the chief executive of the NSPCC, and barrister Richard Whittam.
Woolf’s departure from the inquiry last month, months after retired judge Lady Butler-Sloss stepped down, was an embarrassment for the government and raised questions about May’s judgment.
Victims’ groups who pressed for Woolf to step down are now also calling for a much tougher judge-led inquiry, which is being resisted by the Home Office. May has promised to consult with victims’ groups much more closely this time.
