May’s return to the scene rebuffed by furious crowds
SHE came to try to make up for her mistake but it only served to enrage this close-knit community even more.
Theresa May had provoked widespread criticism and anger on Thursday after failing to visit the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire when she came to the Westway road – staying for 15 minutes and swerving any contact with locals.
Yesterday afternoon, word spread she was due to come back, this time to visit St Clement’s Church, where volunteers had been boxing up donations. Before long a crowd had gathered, filling the street outside the church.
As they waited, the people became increasingly hostile, shouting at her to come out and face them. One man began chanting: “Get her out! Get her out!”, while another screamed at police barring the door to the church: “Why have you brought her here? If she cared she would have come yesterday.”
Forty minutes passed, and still nothing. Then one of the waiting riot vans started up and began to move forward, parting the crowd. The Prime Minister’s Range Rover rounded the bend.
“She’s come out the back,” a woman shouted. As the car began to speed away the crowd rushed towards it. Around 70 people were running after her as police attempted to barricade the vehicle, creating a human barrier between the mob and the Prime Minister’s car, shoving people off as they tried to bang on the windows.
People screamed “shame on you” and “coward” as the car sped away.
One woman climbed on to the roof of a parked car. Sharlene Anthony said: “I ran after her and I was stopped by a wall of police officers. I got on the bonnet of one of the cars and screamed at her. I had to say to the police, ‘you are going to start a riot here!’”
Latif Sheeda was also among the mob who ran at the car. He said people began flocking to the church, wanting to let the Prime Minister know she was not welcome. “The word went round: ‘Theresa May is here’, and it started spreading,” he said. “People are angry. When you walk down Latimer Road there are just pictures and pictures of kids. You can’t dismiss that.”
Mr Sheeda said no one wanted to cause Mrs May any harm, but she should not have returned. “She came yesterday and she didn’t mingle with the community. Why has she come here today? There was no point in her being here. It’s just a PR stunt,” he said.
Mrs May’s visit came on a day when tensions had been running high.
An angry mob stormed Kensington Town Hall, charging at the doors after a protest in solidarity with the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire turned sour.
Meanwhile, Andrea Leadsom, one of Mrs May’s Cabinet ministers, was confronted by furious locals at a community centre near the site of the inferno.
Marvin Fraser, who grew up in the area and was also one of those who ran at the Prime Minister’s car, said he was not surprised Mrs May had chosen to visit just as the majority of locals were protesting streets away at the Town Hall, and claimed she was a “coward”. He added: “I don’t know why the church let her in.”
St Clement’s Church has for the past three days provided a place of refuge for families of those people who are missing. During her visit, sources said the Prime Minister met survivors from the tower, as well as community leaders and other local residents.
Mrs May made the visit after the Queen and the Duke of Cambridge had come to the area to offer solace to the victims. They were broadly well received when they came to The Westway Centre, where they were shown around by a volunteer and met survivors and the emergency services.
Taksima Ferdous, a charity worker for the Penny Appeal, said the Queen had told her to “keep continuing” all the good work she was doing.
“Prince William shook my hand and said ‘thank you’. I think his time was quite limited. They were thanking us.”
One woman said the Queen “asked them how they were and expressed her sadness at what had happened. She seemed very sympathetic.
“It was more than Theresa May has done. She didn’t even speak to anyone.”
On a tense day, it seemed the visit had gone smoothly, before a man carrying a poster of two siblings who have been missing since the fire called out to the Duke to go over. He responded that he had to leave but shouted: “I’ll come back, I’ll come back.”
In an effort to ease the criticism of the Government, Mrs May announced a £5million support package for the victims of the fire, which includes legal aid for victims in the public inquiry.
After visiting victims in hospital yesterday, she said: “The individual stories I heard this morning at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital were horrific.”
She added: “Everyone affected by this tragedy needs reassurance that the Government is there for them at this terrible time – and that is what I am determined to provide.”