Lord mayor who was ‘never part of establishment’

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FIONA Woolf’s appointment as chairwoman of the historical child sex abuse inquiry was supposed to instil confidence in the process but quickly plunged it into fresh controversy.

The installation of the Lord Mayor of the City of London was initially welcomed by campaigners who were keen for the investigation to begin. She was described by Labour MP Simon Danczuk as a “smart and capable woman”.

But the leading tax lawyer’s links to former home secretary Lord Brittan, a neighbour, soon saw the spotlight focus on her background.

The Edinburghborn former Law Society president was educated at St Denis School before reading law at Keele University and completing a diploma in comparative law at the University of Strasbourg.

Mrs Woolf, 66, qualified as a solicitor in 1973 and became a partner at CMS Cameron McKenna eight years later.

The solicitor told MPs she knew “thousands” of people in London but insisted she was not a member of the establishment.

She lists membership of two private members’ clubs – the RAC, which has a clubhouse on London’s Pall Mall as well as one at Woodcote Park, set in 350 acres of Surrey parkland and with two 18hole golf courses, and the City Livery Club.

Mrs Woolf told MPs she had had hundreds of dinner parties at her home, but it was those she hosted for the Brittans that threw her current role into question. She said the dinners happened shortly after she was elected as an alderman for the City of London Corporation when she needed to build her City network.

She said: “As an ordinary solicitor in private practice, I really do not think I count as a member of the establishment.”