HORROR STILL RAW FOR GRENFELL FAMILIES

This week I had the privilege of chairing a special event at the House of Commons where members of Grenfell United – the official body representing families from the tower – met around 50 MPs.

It was a moment for Parliament to stop and listen. “We have had to come here to bare our wounds to get your attention,” said GU chairman Shahin Sadafi.

What followed were four accounts so harrowing that MPs from across the political divide regularly wept, and covered their faces with their hands.

Ahmed Elgwahry told the MPs what it felt like to listen to his sister Mariem and mother Eslah, who lived on the 22nd floor, choke on toxic smoke.

“My mum and sister were poisoned by the smoke, they were burnt and they were cremated,” said Ahmed, who himself lived in the tower for 20 years. “In addition to that, I had to listen to them die, I had to listen to the fire get up to the flat and burn them and everyone else in that room.

“Furthermore, I had to watch that flat burn for a couple of days – if that is not torture, I’m not sure what else is.”

He said the fire happened because “of a culture of negligence and self-interest” and “treating residents as second-class citizens”.

Between them, Natasha Elcock, Bellal El Guenuni, Ahmed and Shahin exposed a catalogue of failings before, during and after the fire.

It was six months yesterday since SISTER Mariem Elgwahry

flames began to spread through Grenfell Tower with devastating consequences.

The incredible local community has been praised this week by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Secretary of State for Communities Sajid Javid, the Speaker John Bercow and by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and hailed by a local health chief as extraordinary.

But local people shouldn’t have had to do everything themselves. They should have been held up by the state during their hour of need.

The people of Grenfell need permanent homes, dedicated mental health support, a voice at the inquiry and sprinklers in neighbouring towers.

But their last request is perhaps the most poignant. They want the land where the tower stood to be handed over to the community for a memorial garden.

To do anything other than this would be unthinkable.