The suspension of the most senior lawyer on the national inquiry into child sexual abuse has been described as a "categorical disaster".

Ben Emmerson QC said he learned of his suspension from news reports and was yet to hear the allegations that had resulted in him being dropped from the £100m probe.

It is the latest controversy to hit the inquiry, which is already on its fourth chairwoman.

Former director of public prosecutions Lord Macdonald said the inquiry had been "careering out of control since its inception".

He added that the Government must "face up to the reality that an inquiry lasting years into dozens of public institutions going back decades, quite unable to restrain its own remit, is destined to end as an embarrassing fiasco".


"From the start it has fatally confused a laudable desire to bring closure to generations of victims with the need for a tightly focused forensic inquiry into the changes that might better protect children in the future," he told the

Times.

Image: The current inquiry chair, Professor Alexis Jay

Mr Emmerson was suspended after the independent inquiry became "very concerned" about aspects of his leadership, a spokeswoman said.

:: The UK's child abuse inquiry in numbers

She said Mr Emmerson, who is counsel to the inquiry, has been "suspended from duty so that these can be properly investigated".

"Suggestions in the press that Mr Emerson was considering resigning after raising disagreements over the future direction of the inquiry are untrue," the spokeswoman added.

"They are not a matter on which he has advised the chair of the inquiry or the panel."

It had been reported that Mr Emmerson was preparing to quit after clashing with the investigation's new head, Professor Alexis Jay.

A spokeswoman for Home Secretary Amber Rudd said she retains full confidence in the inquiry and Mr Emmerson's suspension was not a matter for her department.

Professor Jay took over as chair last month after the sudden resignation of senior New Zealand judge Dame Lowell Goddard.

Image: Former inquiry chair Justice Lowell Goddard

Earlier this month, Dame Lowell, said the inquiry was too unwieldy and needed to be completely overhauled.

She also criticised the staff for being inexperienced and said there had been a "legacy of failure which has been very hard to shake off".

The inquiry's brief stretches back 60 years and covers institutions including the church, schools, councils and Westminster.

It is expected to run for at least 10 years and cost around £100m.

Professor Jay is the fourth person to lead the investigation after Dame Lowell Goddard, Dame Fiona Woolf and Baroness Butler-Sloss.

It was set up in 2014 amid claims of an establishment cover-up following allegations that a paedophile ring operated in Westminster in the 1980s.

After she left, Dame Lowell was asked to appear before the Home Affairs Select Committee to explain why she had stood down.

Despite being paid £500,000, there were reports she had spent three months on holiday or abroad in her first year in charge.