UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail
Victims’ anger as Clegg backs boss of abuse inquiry: Deputy PM says he has ‘not heard anything’ to suggest she is wrong choice for the role
By Sam Greenhill and Jack Doyle for the Daily Mail
Nick Clegg was condemned by sex assault victims yesterday for giving his support to the under-fire chairman of the Government’s child abuse inquiry.
The deputy prime minister offered his backing to Fiona Woolf, who faces mounting pressure to quit over her friendship with Lord Brittan, a possible key witness at the inquiry.
Mr Clegg said he had ‘not heard anything’ suggesting she was the wrong choice for the role.
But survivors of abuse, including one of his old schoolfriends, accused him of being on ‘a different planet’. Ian McFadyen, who was subjected to violent sexual assaults by two male teachers at Caldicott School in the 1970s, when he was in the same year group as the future Liberal Democrat leader, is spearheading the drive to have Mrs Woolf removed as inquiry chairman.
After the deputy prime minister backed Mrs Woolf, Mr McFadyen wrote on Twitter: ‘I’m sorry Mr Clegg, do we live on a different planet?’ Mr McFadyen is behind a High Court challenge demanding a judicial review of Mrs Woolf’s appointment.
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