The replacement chair of an inquiry into historical child abuse faced pressure to quit yesterday after revealing she had dinners with cover-up suspect and Tory ex-minister Leon Brittan.

Fiona Woolf admitted that she had dined repeatedly with former home secretary, now a lord, and his wife, who live on the same street.

But she claimed bizarrely that there was no conflict of interest with her role heading the probe into a possible high-level cover-up of paedophilia among senior Establishment figures in the 1980s.

Home Secretary Theresa May backed Ms Woolf after she was drafted in last month after initial choice Lady Butler-Sloss quit over family ties to the probe.

“If you have somebody round for dinner in your home, you would consider them a good friend,” said Labour MP Simon Danczuk.

Mr Brittan is expected to be called by the inquiry over claims that he failed to act on a dossier of abuse allegations handed to him in 1983 while he was a minister.

He denies the claim.