Home Office Helped Rewrite Child Abuse Probe Boss's Letter 7 Times over Links to Brittan

By John Stevens
Daily Mail
October 31, 2014

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2814670/Chair-sex-abuse-inquiry-accused-playing-links-Tory-minister-Thatcher-government.html

Fiona Woolf re-wrote a letter to the Home Secretary seven times to play down links to Leon Brittan

The head of the Government’s child abuse inquiry re-wrote a letter to the Home Secretary seven times in order to play down her links to Leon Brittan, it was claimed yesterday.

Fiona Woolf is already under pressure to resign because of her personal relationship to the Tory peer, who is at the centre of allegations of an Establishment cover-up of sex abuse claims in the 1980s.

It has now emerged that she made several changes to a formal letter she sent to Theresa May about possible conflicts of interest.

With assistance from the Home Office, she made more than half a dozen alterations to the document to remove language that alluded to her closeness to the Conservative grandee.

The different versions of the letter emerged yesterday two days after a Labour MP used parliamentary privilege to link Lord Brittan to ‘improper conduct with children’.

Victims described the latest revelations as ‘extraordinary’ and renewed their calls on City lawyer Mrs Woolf to step down.

Former home secretary Leon Brittan strenuously denies accusations that he is at the centre of a cover-up over historic sex abuse claims.

It is alleged that, while in charge of the Home Office, he ignored a document – which later went missing – that described a paedophile ring involving high-profile figures.

Mrs Woolf, who was appointed last month to lead the investigation, wrote a letter to current Home Secretary Mrs May to list her possible conflicts of interests.

She lists five dinner parties among the contacts she has had with Lord Brittan and his wife, who live on the same street as her.

As well as inviting the Brittans to dinner at her house three times, Mrs Woolf 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.

Yesterday the home affairs select committee published the seven drafts that showed the letter was repeatedly amended.

Committee chairman Keith Vaz MP said the re-writes gave a sense of ‘detachment’ between Lord and Lady Brittan and Mrs Woolf.

Saying the letter ‘raises more questions than it answers’, he said facts as well as words were altered.

‘It is extraordinary that Mrs Woolf did not even write the first draft of her letter, which was supposed to detail her own personal experiences.

‘The letter then underwent seven drafts with a multiplicity of editors. The final version gave a sense of greater detachment between Lord and Lady Brittan and Mrs Woolf than her previous attempts.’

Early versions of the letter detailing the dinner parties include language such as ‘I returned the compliment’ and ‘we engaged in another exchange of dinner parties’. But this was deleted in the final version.

In one of the first drafts, she wrote: ‘I live on the same street as the Brittan’s (sic)’. But it was changed to ‘I have had a house in London as the same street as the Brittans’.

Home Affairs Select Committee chairman Keith Vaz said his committee could recall Mrs Woolf to give evidence

Mrs Woolf hosted a drinks reception for City dignitaries, including Lord Brittan, above right, where they were introduced to French premier Francois Fillon, above left, in 2011

Mrs Woolf hosted a drinks reception for City dignitaries, including Lord Brittan, above right, where they were introduced to French premier Francois Fillon, above left, in 2011

Labour MP Mr Vaz said the committee would decide next week if Mrs Woolf should be recalled to give further evidence. He said lessons had not been learned since the appointment of the previous head of the inquiry, Baroness Butler-Sloss.

She was forced to resign after it emerged her brother, Michael Havers, may have had to make legal decisions about abuse allegations in his role as attorney general in the 1980s.

In the letter, Mrs Woolf – who is the Lord Mayor of London – stated that she had no ‘social contact’ with Lord and Lady Brittan since April 23 last year.

But a photo emerged of her chatting to Lady Brittan at a prize-giving last October.

Mrs Woolf (left) pictured with Lady Brittan (right), Lord Brittan's wife, at a party last year

Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk has called for Mrs Woolf to step down as chair of the sex abuse inquiry

Yesterday she said she did not recall any ‘substantial interaction’ with Lady Brittan at the event. Alison Millar, a solicitor representing around 50 alleged abuse victims, repeated her call for Mrs Woolf to be replaced.

She said: ‘This response by Mrs Woolf will only cement in the minds of my clients that she is not the right person to head this inquiry.’

MP Jim Hood used parliamentary privilege in the Commons on Tuesday to say there were ‘reports about child abuse being linked with’ Lord Birttan, now 75.

A Home Office spokesman last night said: ‘We remain confident Fiona Woolf and the panel members can carry out their duties to the highest standards of impartiality and integrity.