NEW COVER-UP FEARS OVER TOWER BLOCK FIRE DISASTER
FEARS of a Grenfell Tower coverup emerged yesterday over claims that the cladding on the building may be illegal in Britain.
Senior political figures admitted the tragedy was “preventable” and demanded that a thorough investigation was carried out into the building’s management.
But former Labour minister David Lammy went further by calling for Scotland Yard to seize files relating to the doomed block’s £8.6million refurbishment.
He said: “We need urgent action now to make sure that all records and documents relating to the refurbishment and management of Grenfell Tower are protected.”
Mr Lammy said that he was convinced Theresa May needed to take action after talking to residents of the west London neighbourhood where the tragedy unfolded.
He added: “Within the community, trust in the authorities is falling through the floor and a suspicion of a cover-up is rising.
“The Prime Minister needs to act immediately to ensure that all evidence is protected so that everyone culpable for what happened at Grenfell Tower is held to account and feels the full force of the law.”
The fresh controversy came as Mrs May announced that families made homeless in last week’s tragedy will be guaranteed £5,500 aid from a special fund.
Downing Street said the Grenfell Tower Residents’ Discretionary Fund will offer victims £500 in cash, then a £5,000 bank transfer from the Department for Work and Pensions.
Meanwhile, confusion remained over the legal status of the aluminium-covered cladding used when the building was refurbished last year.
In the immediate aftermath of the blaze, fire experts claimed that the Reynobond (PE) panels were banned for use on tall buildings in the United States, while they were allowed here.
Contractor Rydon was said to have used the panels in the refurbishment when there was a fire resistant version available which would have cost only £6,000 more.
But Chancellor Phillip Hammond said yesterday Reynobond (PE) cladding is not allowed by British building regulations. He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “My understanding is the cladding in question, this flammable cladding which is banned in Europe and the US, is also banned here.”
Shortly afterwards he was contradicted by John Cowley, managing director of CEP Architectural Facades, which produced panels and windows for Harley Facades, cladding sub-contractor for Rydon. He said: “Reynobond PE is not banned in the UK. Current building regulations allow its use in both low-rise and highrise structures.
“The key question now is whether the overall design of the building’s complete exterior was properly tested and subsequently signed off by the relevant authorities including the fire officer, building compliance officer and architect before commencement of the project.”
London mayor Sadiq Khan called the disaster, which is thought to have claimed at least 58 lives, a “preventable accident”. As he attended a service at nearby St Clement’s Church, he said: “There is a feeling from the community that they have been treated
badly because some of them are poor. The tragedy we’re seeing is because of the consequences of mistakes and neglect from politicians, from the council and from the Government.”
His claims were supported by residents who went to Downing Street to meet Mrs May – days after she drew condemnation for failing to meet them. In a statement, the group of victims, residents, community leaders and volunteers, claimed officials from the block’s operators Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation had been “invisible”.
They added: “We explained to the Prime Minister the anger of all residents towards the management of the estate over a long period of time, paving the way to this tragedy. With the exception of very few junior officers, the estate managers have been invisible in the aftermath of the tragedy.” Nick Paget-Brown, Tory leader of Kensington and Chelsea council, claimed his officials were on the ground “very soon” after the fire broke out in the early hours of Wednesday.
He said: “I feel terrible about the whole position we find ourselves in. All I’m keen to say is there is an effective, co-ordinated relief effort on the ground and I’m sorry if people haven’t seen that.” One volunteer helping local residents, Nisha Parti, claimed yesterday that the council had given survivors just £10 to live on as they struggle to find food and accommodation.
She said: “There is money pouring in from all these amazing volunteers, we can’t get access to the money and we cannot get it to the families.”
AS THE anger continues to rise from the Grenfell tower block disaster there is a whiff of revolution in the air. Justifiable shock at the tragedy is turning to fury at the Conservative Government. In this narrative of outrage, the unprecedented catastrophe is held to symbolize Tory neglect and cruelty, where market forces have supposedly triumphed over the basic needs of the public.
Much of the indignation focuses on the beleaguered Prime Minister, already badly weakened by her mishandling of the general election. Amid accusations of incompetence and inhumanity, this mood has taken on the trappings of a witch-hunt against Theresa May.
She has been denounced as a heartless, malfunctioning robot, unable either to connect with grieving residents or to co-ordinate an emergency relief operation. “Coward” and “shame on you” were just some of the insults thrown at her by local people when she visited the site.
This vengeful mood has been stoked with relish by parts of the media, always eager to capitalise on Tory turmoil. On Friday night, BBC Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis conducted a brutal interview, attacking May for her apparent coldness in the face of suffering. Even more determined to exploit the tragedy are the forces of the Left, which have seen the chance to pursue their aggressive socialist agenda.
WHILE Jeremy Corbyn, Labour’s Marxist Witchfinder-General, proposes the seizure of properties belonging to the rich, his acolyte Clive Lewis MP declares that we should “burn neo-liberalism, not people”.
This is a theme that has been enthusiastically taken up by protestors since the terrible fire as they call for the Conservatives to be kicked out of office. After angry demonstrations in Kensington and Westminster, there is to be another march this Wednesday to coincide with the State Opening of Parliament.
The group March for Justice, one of the event’s organisers, has described this as “A Day of Rage” to “stop the social and ethnic cleansing of London”. According to these extremists the victims of Grenfell tower block were “murdered by the rotten capitalist system”.
There is a ghoulish, menacing air about this drive to politicise the disaster.
Yet so much of this orchestrated hysteria against May not only lacks any sense of proportion but is also deeply unjust. For a start, the idea that she has been locked in her Downing Street bunker, doing nothing, is absurd.
The measures she has taken since Wednesday include the launch of a public inquiry, the establishment of a £5million fund for displaced Grenfell residents, a pledge of swift rehousing, an urgent safety review of all tower blocks in the country, and the transfer of Whitehall civil servants to bolster the emergency team at Kensington and Chelsea council.
It is just as wrong to hold May personally responsible for the fire, the causes of which are not yet clear, though it seems that new external cladding might have contributed to the fire’s rapid spread. But she had no involvement in the Grenfell refurbishment programme or the provision of fire safety. Those decisions were taken by architects, contractors, housing managers and inspectors, acting in the context of building regulations. To accuse May is taking the concept of prime ministerial accountability too far.
It is just as fallacious to portray the fire as an indictment of capitalism. The tower block has nothing to do with private property.
As a provider of social housing, it is in the public sector and run by a semi-independent management organisation under the auspices of the local council. Similarly, all the talk about cuts and neglect is hollow.
In fact in direct contrast to the narrative being put about by the Labour Party, £8.6million was spent on the recent refurbishment, which works out at about £350,000 per floor. Nor was the installation of cladding over the exterior just cosmetic. In line with fashionable progressive thinking it was designed to improve insulation, increase energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. But none of this seems to matter in the frenzy against May.
HER greatest crime, according to the charge sheet against her, is her failure to show enough anguish. But the idea that she lacks sympathy is a travesty of the truth.
By all accounts, she has been left distraught by the inferno like all decent people. Indeed, the Reverend Mark O’Donoghue, who took some of the residents to Downing Street on Saturday, later said, “To see her welling up at various points in the meeting, holding the hand of a lady sobbing next to her, was quite shocking, I think, to most of us there and does not fit the picture.”
But none of this is good enough for the lynch mob. We live in an age of toxic sentimentality where the traditional British stiff upper lip is no more. Instead, in this culture of competitive mourning, our leaders must reach an arbitrary threshold in displays of public emotion, accompanied by tears and hugs.
As a shy, reserved person, it is a disgrace the Prime Minister is condemned because she failed to show enough emotion after the event.
‘The Left is stoking up a vengeful mood’