Can’t you show a scintilla of gratitude, Stormzy?

MICHAEL OMARI was born in a counc i l house in Croydon, South London, in 1993. he is one of four children raised by his single mother Abigail, an evangelical Christian, after his father walked out when he was an infant.

Mum emigrated from Ghana to Britain in the hope of giving herself and her family a better life. And she succeeded. On Wednesday her son — now known as grime rapper Stormzy — won two top gongs, for best British male solo artist and best album at the Brit Awards for pop music.

If ever there were proof that whatever your background, this is a country that provides opportunities, Stormzy is it. he is a formidable talent. Accepting his awards he thanked God, his family — and then proceeded to attack the Tory Government.

he rapped: ‘ Yo, Theresa May, where’s the money for Grenfell . . . and you got the cheek to call us savages, you should do some jail time . . . we should burn your house down and see if you can manage this.’

What was most shocking about this was its bile and ignorance.

The PM has never called anyone ‘savages’ let alone the victims and survivors of Grenfell. her government has committed £58 million to helping victims of the Grenfell tragedy and more will follow. And yet Stormzy’s message was that, as some vile form of retribution for Grenfell, Theresa May’s house should be burnt down to see how she likes it.

Stormzy got six A*s at GCSe level and A levels before he left school and entered a world of gangs, drug dealing and violence.

But thanks to tenacity, hard work and talent he escaped his past and created an exciting future for himself. By doing so he became an inspiration for young working-class men and, to his credit, he mentors children from his community and helps young people through charity work.

Which is why it is all the more depressing that he spouted such incendiary statements about the Grenfell tragedy, effectively parroting in vulgar language the hard-Left lies first made at the Glastonbury Festival last summer by shadow Chancellor John McDonnell — that Grenfell’s victims were ‘murdered’.

For all his life Stormzy has happily benefited from the health care, housing and education opportunities the government, whether Tory or Labour, has provided.

Today, as he relaxes in his £2 million flat, employing accountants who specialise in ‘ultra-high-net-worth individuals’ and ‘overseas companies and non-domiciled individuals’, is it asking too much that he show a scintilla of gratitude to the country that offered his mother and him so much? Instead of trashing it.