WRITING’S ON THE WALL FOR MAY
Inferno blunders spark protest
FLAILING Theresa May’s grip on her premiership is slipping after her woeful response to the Grenfell fire tragedy sparked a mass protest. Furious Londoners stormed their council HQ as the PM aborted her second visit to the blaze site. The Queen went to the devastated tower block yesterday and spoke to survivors.
But May’s trip was abruptly ended when residents vented their fury. A list of grim blunders on a wall near the flats laid out some of the reasons for their anger.
And senior Tories are now determined to ensure May’s days in No10 are numbered.
THE Queen gave Theresa May a lesson in leadership yesterday as she comforted survivors of the Grenfell Tower inferno.
The Prime Minister hid from local people when she visited the scene on Thursday, choosing to talk only to emergency workers.
Tory allies claimed she couldn’t speak to the victims because of “security concerns”.
But as local anger and criticism of May’s lack of humanity intensified, the 91-year-old Queen showed that excuse up for the nonsense it was.
She and grandson Prince William walked into the Westway Sports Centre in the shadow of the burned-out tower.
The number of confirmed dead from the 24-storey block rose to 30 yesterday, but it’s feared more than 100 lost their lives.
The sports hall is being used as a refuge centre for survivors, and the royals took time to talk to as many of them as they could.
The Queen, famous all over the world for her stoicism, had tears in her eyes as she heard
their stories. Rihanna Levi, 17, who escaped the fire, said: “I told her it was just like a movie and she said it must have been terrible to watch.
“The past few days have been devastating but it was a real honour to meet the Queen.”
Charity worker Taksima Ferdous, 31, said: “The Queen said to me, ‘You have been incredible, please keep continuing.’
“Prince William shook my hand and said thank you.”
As they left, both the Queen and William stopped to speak to local people who had gathered outside.
There were harrowing scenes as local man Rami Mohamed held up a poster of his friend’s two missing children and begged to speak to the royals.
He shouted: “What about the children? Queen? Queen? What about the children?”
William stopped, pointed at Rami and said: “I’ll be back.”
While he and the Queen were showing their support, May was trying to limit the damage from Thursday.
She visited victims at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, then headed back to the scene to meet survivors and volunteers at St Clement’s Church. But both meetings were held behind closed doors and it was too little, too late.
Anger over the fire – and May’s treatment of local people since – is growing in the community, and she felt it.
While May was inside the church, police had to hold back dozens of angry people outside. The crowd shouted, “Coward!” and “Shame on you!”
One tearful woman said people were angry because she had refused to talk to them.
Protesters surrounded the Prime Minister’s car as she left. She looked shaken.
Downing Street later announced a £5million fund to pay for emergency supplies, food, clothes and other essentials for survivors.
They said people left homeless would be rehoused “at the earliest possible opportunity” and within three weeks at the latest.
But the Tories have abandoned their pledge to rehouse everyone in the local area, and now say some may have to go elsewhere in London.
The Government’s response is unlikely to satisfy people furious at years of cuts and neglect. London Mayor Sadiq Khan wrote to May to tell her he had
spoken to residents who were “understandably distraught, frustrated and increasingly angry”.
He added: “They feel the Government and council have not done enough to help them.”
There were more angry scenes at the offices of Grenfell Tower’s owners, Tory-run Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council.
A crowd of furious locals – joined by singer Lily Allen – stormed into the building and demanded to know why the council were not doing more to help survivors of the fire.
The demonstrators called for a criminal inquiry into the refurbishment of the tower and urgent work to make sure all other high flats in the area are safe.
Police formed a line to stop them getting up the stairs into the council offices and there was pushing and shoving between protesters and officers. Two men in suits were angrily confronted outside.
Lily said she joined the protest because she wanted to see support for children who saw their friends “burn alive”. She said May’s attitude was an insult. Communities Secretary Sajid Javid defended the PM’s response, saying: “Different people show emotion in different ways.” Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom, who did go to the scene to face residents, also tried to speak up for her boss. But she was tackled during a TV interview by Nadir, 24, who has friends missing. He told her: “This fire could have been stopped a long long time ago. “This block and every single block in the area is suffering the same way because of the lack of basic things.” Leadsom said: “It is absolutely devastating. I utterly understand how appalling this is.” May later refused to answer a BBC interviewer’s questions about her response. Asked if she had failed to understand local anger, she said only: “This was a terrible tragedy that took place. People have lost their lives and others have lost everything.
“What we are doing is putting in place the support that will help them.”
There were more protests at Westminster, where a large crowd gathered and headed for Downing Street. They chanted “justice for Grenfell”, “May
must go” and “blood on your hands”. Demonstrators moving peacefully down Whitehall were stopped by police outside Downing Street. They moved on to Oxford Circus and staged a sit-down protest before continuing up Regent Street. Police at Grenfell Tower have begun a criminal investigation but have stressed that the fire was not started deliberately. Investigators have pinpointed and examined the spot where it began. Scotland Yard’s homicide and major crime command are instead facing calls for corporate manslaughter arrests to be made.
Commander Stuart Cundy promised that his officers “will get to the answer of what has happened and why”.
He added: “If criminal offences have been committed, it is us who will investigate that.”
Mr Cundy said the bodies of 12 victims had been taken to a mortuary but “a number of bodies” were still in the tower. Twenty-four people remain in hospital and 12 of them are critically ill.