As the SKWAWKBOX covered on Tuesday, Theresa May and her successor as Home Secretary have been accused of using ‘national security’ to withhold evidence of child abuse from IICSA – the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
The accusation was made in the Commons by Labour MP Lisa Nandy:
In February 2015, when May was Home Secretary another Labour MP, John Mann, moved an amendment to prevent the Official Secrets Act (OSA) being used to block witnesses giving evidence about child sexual abuse.
The Tories voted it down.
The Solicitor General responded to Mann’s call:
Departments and ministers can permit…
I assure the hon. Member.. that the Government are committed…
We are satisfied that the Official Secrets Act is not, will not, and should not be a bar to evidence being provided, but I am grateful to him for raising that important issue.
‘Permit’, ‘assure’, ‘satisfied’. In other words, “we think the current situation is good enough and expect you to accept our assurance the OSA won’t be used to prevent evidence coming out – so we’ll keep things as they are”.
Because we all know that Tories never lie or break a promise – and they never cover up child abuse for their own purposes…
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