Fire probe farce
Judge leading inquiry admits it won’t go far enough for victims Council tries to ban Press from meeting – then scraps it
THE inquiry into the Grenfell Tower inferno was engulfed by chaos last night before it had even begun.
The retired judge appointed to conduct the probe admitted it was unlikely to satisfy survivors and families of the victims.
And councillors were condemned for an attempt to ban the Press from a meeting at which the inquiry was due to be discussed.
Sir Martin Moore-Bick, the former Appeal Court judge who will lead the inquiry, vowed to lead a ‘vigorous’ investigation that would get to the truth behind the fire as ‘quickly as possible’.
But after meeting survivors during a visit to the scene of the blaze in North Kensington where at least 80 died, he admitted: ‘I’m well aware the residents and the local people want a much broader investigation and I can fully understand why they would want that.
‘Whether my inquiry is the right way to achieve that I’m more doubtful.’
The inquiry is likely be limited to the cause of the fire, how it spread and preventing a future blaze rather than addressing allegations of criminality. Grenfell residents also complained that they had not been consulted over Sir Martin’s appointment.
The row prompted warnings the probe would mirror the farce surrounding the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, now on its fourth chairman.
Labour MP Lisa Nandy said: ‘This feels worryingly similar to the child abuse inquiry. The Grenfell inquiry must have the confidence of survivors.’
Michael Mansfield QC, who has been in contact with residents, said it was ‘unbelievable that lessons are not learnt’ from the abuse inquiry.
Sir Martin, who retired last December, controversially allowed Westminster City Council to rehouse a mother-of-five 50 miles away from her home because a benefits cap had made her flat unaffordable. The decision was later overturned by the Supreme Court.
Last night the first Kensington council meeting to discuss the Grenfell disaster was abandoned after the Press and public won the right to attend.
The local authority had initially announced the meeting of senior councillors would be held in private amid fears of ‘disruption’. Protesters tried to storm Kensington Town Hall on June 16 two days after the tragedy.
The media, including the Daily Mail, then won a High Court order overturning the ban on journalists attending. But council leader Nicholas Paget-Brown cancelled the meeting midway through after reporters arrived, saying their presence would ‘prejudice’ the forthcoming public inquiry.
He added: ‘We can’t have an unprejudiced discussion in this room with the public inquiry that is about to take place if journalists are recording and writing our comments.’
Councillor Robert Atkinson. who represents the Notting Dale ward in which Grenfell Tower is based, described the decision by members as ‘an absolute fiasco’.
About a dozen residents from the area had gathered outside Kensington Town Hall in the hope of attending the meeting, but tensions rose when security guards refused them entry.
Teacher Moyra Samuels, a member of the Justice For Grenfell group, said: ‘We’re bloody angry they are not going to come out and offer a damn explanation as to why we are not able to get in.
‘They have not actually stood up and talked to the community, which is despicable.’
Earlier in the day, Sir Martin said: ‘The purpose of this inquiry is to discover the truth about what happened at Grenfell Tower, so we can learn lessons for the future and ensure a tragedy of this kind never happens again. It is vitally important the inquiry be open, transparent and fair to all those whose involvement with Grenfell Tower comes under scrutiny.’
But Joe Delaney, from the Grenfell Action Group, said the fire was ‘a criminal matter’ and expressed fears that Sir Martin’s background in commercial law made him unsuitable.
‘He seems to want to keep the scope very narrow,’ he said. ‘We are more looking at why [the fire] started in the first place… why were residents ignored?’
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has called for an interim report to be published this summer.
‘It’s an absolute fiasco’