Prof Alexis Jay, who headed a national public inquiry into child sex abuse, said she had an ‘adversarial’ conversation with an unnamed Tory advisor for speaking out – but no action
MPs listened with horror as the head of a public inquiry into child sexual abuse described being berated by a Tory advisor for speaking out about the Government’s failure to act.
Professor Alexis Jay said she and three others had written to the press saying they were “upset and distressed” after being repeatedly ignored. Prof Jay, who headed the harrowing Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), said her findings – first published in 2022 – were treated as “inconsequential”.
She told the Home Affairs Select Committee that after No10 and the Home Office refused to address her concerns, she penned the letter to The Times in June 2023. Prof Jay said she was contacted by the Home Office – only to be faced with an “adversorial” special advisor. Despite saying she had ideas on how to protect victims, the conversation in June 2023 was followed by “quite a long silence”.
None of the 20 recommendations put forward by Prof Jay – including mandatory reporting of sex abuse – was enacted by the Tories. Prof Jay described the Government’s response to her inquiry was “awful” and left victims angry, prompting her to write the letter.
Describing what happened in 2023, while Suella Braverman was Home Secretary, Prof Jay said: “At the end of May after I’d seen the published response of the Government, myself and three panel members from the original inquiry wrote to The Times newspaper saying how upset and distressed many people were after the all this time and all this energy, the response felt disingenous.
“It appeared to promise something and in fact there was no substance to it. That was our public statement about what we thought what we felt about what happened.
“I was on holiday and I had a message that somebody from the Home Office wished to talk to me about how we could take the recommendations forward. I thought maybe this was a chance.
“What then happened – which I felt was improper – was a special advisor came on demanding to know why I had written to The Times, complaining. I was very clear that I wasn’t accountable to this person, and I did have ideas about how we could take things forward if we were willing to listen. That wasn’t a happy experience either, trying to push for these recommendations which were much needed, to go forward.
“We were not sitting back through this period of time, we were constantly trying to get political attention to the fact that these recommendations had not been acted upon.”
Pressed further about the conversation, Prof Jay said: “The starting point was ‘why did you write to The Times? I don’t want to make much of this but it was definitely adversarial.”
Asked if it led to any action, she said: “No, in fact it led to quite a long silence.”
Describing the previous Government’s inaction, she said: “It was awful, I can’t tell you how it felt to constantly read the response”. Prof Jay went on: “It was inconsequential, insubstantial, committed to nothing.”
She went on: “The reaction of all of us, but mostly victims and survivors, was such huge disappointment and anger at what they had pinned a great deal of hope and anticipation on, that the recommendations we made would be delivered.”
Prof Jay accused former Home Secretary Suella Braverman of being “vague” when she confronted her.
