The murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman highlight the need for a children's commissioner in England, the Labour MP and former TV producer Shaun Woodward says today.

The St Helens South MP, who is a director of the charity Childline, tells ePolitix.com that an independent figure could play a vital role in high profile child murder or abduction cases.

"Every one of the children's charities support the idea of an independent commissioner for children in England - well resourced, properly budgeted, with investigatory powers - we need one, we need one now," he told this website.

"I really think the events of the last few weeks, these terrible, tragic events, once again highlight this need."

Following the deaths of the Cambridgeshire schoolgirls there have been high profile media campaigns for action against paedophiles.

"I think the appallingly tragic circumstances which have surrounded the deaths of Holly and Jessica recently have once again demonstrated how the media come forward with lots of proposals of what we should now do but there isn't an independent figure who, as it were, marshals all of that," Woodward said.

Woodward says independent commissioner could comment on often emotive campaigns, such as last summer's tabloid call for a Sarah's law or new plans to combat internet "grooming".

"A lot of people in this country feel very strongly that something must done," he said.

"But we need someone who, as it were, can stand back, who has the experience and expertise, and the ability to call on evidence who can actually say 'yes this is appropriate' or 'it's a good idea but its not appropriate in that way, we could do it slightly differently and it would be better'. We need this figure and we need it soon."

A commissioner would give children a body "that looks at these issues in the same way that a commissioner for the disabled or racial equality would".

"There is somebody there who says 'look at this situation that is going on at the moment', whether its an acute situation like the events in Soham, or whether its an ongoing situation like the general problem of child abuse - which is a huge problem in the UK - who says that the government needs to look at this, who says 'we think this is the most urgent issue facing children at the moment'," he said.

Woodward, a member of Westminster's joint select committee on human rights, insists that an independent commissioner is "very different from a minister for children".

"A minister is at the end of the day a part of the government and that is part of a political agenda. Children's issues may become part of a political agenda but they need to be independent from politics as well, and if they are not independent from politics we can have problems with that," he said.

The MP believes that the question of independence is vital in cases such as a national child murder tragedy or an institutional abuse scandal.

"Ministers tend to do what government's want them to do, if they don't they tend to lose their jobs. There may be times on children's issues when it's necessary to say things that government wouldn't agree with but they need to be said and policies need to be created to meet those needs," Woodward stressed.

Northern Ireland, Scotland and now Wales have a children's commissioner and the usually loyalist backbencher considers the government's current wait and see policy for England to be "nonsense".

"At the moment the government's policy is to say 'well we're going to see how things pan out in Wales and depending on that we will see whether we are going to have one in England'," says Woodward.

"I think it is nonsense. patently there is a need for an independent figure who represents children in this country, just as there is everywhere else in the UK, delaying that is a mistake, and the government should act."

"We don't to need review what's happening in Wales, it is already making a difference."