Yvette Cooper MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, responding to the announcement that Fiona Woolf is to step down as the head of an inquiry into historic child sex abuse, said:

“It is right that Fiona Woolf has decided to stand down and she has done so with considerable dignity, having been put into an impossible position by the Home Secretary. Theresa May failed to make sure that she had the support of victims or that the Home Office had done the proper background checks.

“For this to happen once was deeply unfortunate, for it to happen twice is appalling incompetence on such an important issue. Theresa May now says she is going to meet victims’ groups. Why didn’t she do this at the outset or after her first chair stood down?

“This is not the first time sensitive and complex inquiries which needed to retain public confidence have been carried out. For example, Lord Bichard’s inquiries into the Soham murders and the Bishop of Liverpool’s investigation into Hillsborough managed to command public confidence. It should not be beyond the wit of the Home Secretary to establish this inquiry on a sound footing. Theresa May has some serious questions to answer about how this went so badly wrong.

“Victims of abuse who were not protected and failed to get justice are still entitled to answers, and child protection for the future needs to be reformed. Four months on, the inquiry still hasn’t started and that must be the priority now.”