May set to announce abuse inquiry

Home Secretary Theresa May is expected to announce a broad independent inquiry into how public institutions handled allegations of child abuse.

Mrs May will give details of the probe as she makes a statement to MPs about claims of organised child abuse at Westminster in the 1980s.

However, she is likely to stop short of launching the full public inquiry being demanded in some quarters.

Former Conservative cabinet minister Lord Tebbit fuelled the clamour over the weekend when he said there “may well” have been a political cover-up at the time in order to protect “the system”.

A Home Office spokesman said: “It is right that the detail of her statement should wait until she speaks in the House of Commons, but her statement will address the two key public concerns.

“First, the Home Office’s response in the 1980s to papers containing allegations of child abuse.

“And second, the wider issue of whether public bodies and other institutions have taken seriously their duty of care towards children.”

Speaking on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, Chancellor George Osborne said the investigation would go “as far as it needs to go”.

“The best approach to this is to find an independent and authoritative way to investigate it,” he said.

“The Home Secretary is going to be setting out to the House of Commons in just a few hours’ time the approach we are going to take.

“But people can be absolutely clear, these are very, very serious matters, we take them very seriously, we want to get to the truth and nothing but the truth, and we will do it in an independent and authoritative way.”

Source Article from https://uk.news.yahoo.com/may-statement-abuse-claims-023803246.html

May set to announce abuse inquiry