Diana Johnson MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Office Minister, responding to reports this morning that Theresa May is to scrap the panel for the independent inquiry into child sex abuse, said:

“The Home Secretary should be utterly ashamed of the process she has overseen. It is now five months since she first announced she would be setting up a wider child abuse inquiry, following pressure from campaign groups and Labour. We are now in a position where there is no chair and no panel, while no work has been done on examining the horrible crimes of the past or into the flaws in the current child protections system. Theresa May needs to take responsibility for the utter failure to get this vital work off the ground over such a long period.

“This is not the first time inquiries have been held on difficult and sensitive issues. Neither the Hillsborough inquiry led by the Bishop of Liverpool nor the Bichard inquiry into child protection was mired in this chaos and confusion.

“The Home Secretary has failed time and time again to set up an inquiry which commands the confidence of the public. It seems she must now go back to the drawing board - while five months that could have been used to listen to survivors and to start uncovering the truth have been wasted.”