FORMER Tory leader William Hague has backed the right of health campaigner Graham Maloney to attend the Richard Neale inquiry.

The businessman, who advises the group set up to represent victims of the surgeon, will not be allowed in when the hearing begins next year.

It is being held to investigate how the NHS dealt with complaints against the former surgeon at the Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton, between 1985 and 1997.

Only group chairman Sheila Wright-Hogeland, patients, and relatives of deceased patients, will have unrestricted access under the present rules.

Richmond MP Mr Hague said the decision to exclude Mr Maloney on the grounds that he is a member of the public, rather than a group leader, was "counter-productive".

Mr Hague has written to the chairman of the hearing, Suzan Matthews QC, asking for Mr Maloney to be given permission to attend.

Despite years of work on behalf of victims of Mr Neale, and his official role as group treasurer, Mr Maloney has no official standing within the inquiry.

Although Mrs Wright-Hogeland has decided to boycott what she describes as the "whitewash", she wants Mr Maloney to be given the same right of access which she has.

She said: "It is ridiculous to exclude Graham from the inquiry, because he probably knows more about this scandal than anyone else."

Mr Maloney pointed to tributes paid to him by the Prime Minister's Sedgefield constituency agent, John Burton, in October 2000.

Mr Burton wrote: "You have achieved an astonishing amount and have, we believe, contributed greatly to the safety of patients of all sorts in the future."

Officers for the inquiry maintain that the best way to get to the bottom of the Neale scandal is to take evidence in private and exclude the press and public.