MAY: MY GRENFELL BLUNDER
PM admits failings year after fire
THERESA May yesterday admitted she had blundered in her response to the Grenfell disaster.
The Prime Minister said she will “always regret” not meeting the survivors immediately after the tragedy.
In an article to mark its first anniversary on June 14, Mrs May said the Government’s reaction was lacking.
She wrote: “Although many people did incredible work during and after the fire, it has long been clear that the initial response was not good enough. I include myself in that.”
Mrs May admitted that it looked as if she “didn’t care” when she met firefighters the day after the disaster but failed to speak to survivors.
In contrast, the Queen talked to locals on her visit, and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn hugged survivors.
DESPAIR
The PM wrote in the Evening Standard: “The residents of Grenfell Tower needed to know that those in power recognised and understood their despair. And I will always regret that by not meeting them that day, it seemed as though I didn’t care. “That was never the case.” Mrs May vowed to see that “lessons are learned and justice is done”. But she did not offer extra cash to make other tower blocks safe.
In March, after a Parliamentary challenge from Labour, the PM was forced into giving money to remove cladding from other high rises.
But MPs refuse to provide cash to retrofit sprinklers in other high rises.
Shadow Housing Secretary John Healey said: “Action, not an apology, is needed to get all survivors into new homes and make other blocks safe.” He told MPs that 300 towers have the same cladding as Grenfell but it has been removed from just ten.
Only 82 of 209 Grenfell residents are in permanent homes. Yesterday, NHS data showed 2,006 adults and 521 children have been sent to mental health services since the fire.
Dr Sara Northey, of Grenfell Health and Wellbeing clinics said: “The trauma is affecting entire families.”
WHEN Theresa May avoided survivors of the Grenfell Tower inferno, while Jeremy Corbyn embraced the tearful families, it told us much about the two leaders.
The PM’s aloofness produces Tory policies which worsen life for millions of people.
She fails to understand the miserable impact of low incomes and poor housing caused by the Government’s callousness.
Mrs May now regrets her cold response, but politicians should not need to be told, ordered or taught how to speak to people.
Equally it was natural for Labour leader Mr Corbyn to seek people out to ask how they were feeling and discover what happened, offering emotional and political support.
And despite her words, Mrs May and her Government still cannot claim they are responding properly to the Grenfell disaster.