Boris attacks London mayor for failing to help Grenfell victims
Christopher Hope, Robert Mendick Martin Evans
BORIS JOHNSON has said that Sadiq Khan should share the blame over why more has not been done for the victims of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
The Foreign Secretary said it was “outrageous” that “dedicated public servants” of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea had been told not to attend today’s memorial service at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Theresa May, the Prime Minister, and Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, have both said they will attend.
The council said on Monday that all its elected Tories had been told to stay away from the service, while Labour councillors had been invited. The council has been blamed for the fire in the 24-storey block in which 71 people, including a stillborn baby, died on June 14.
Survivors are angry that many are still in temporary accommodation as Christmas approaches.
The Bishop of Kensington, who is leading the service to mark six months since the tragedy, said tensions between the victims’ relations and the Conservative-run council led to the decision to exclude them.
But Mr Johnson turned his fire on Mr Khan, his Labour successor as Mayor of London, asking why he had not done more to help the Grenfell survivors.
He told The Daily Telegraph last night: “The most extraordinary lacuna in the whole conversation about Grenfell is the Mayor of London, as Macavity-like a performance by anybody I have ever seen. Why did he not take charge? Why did he not find accommodation for the victims? Why was he so
spineless and invertebrate? Unbelievable.” Mr Johnson added: “It is completely wrong to take issue in that way, to discriminate against people who have given long service to their community and who may have got things wrong but who want to do their best for the people of the neighbourhood. To impugn their motives and to impugn their characters is absolutely wrong.”
Rob Wilson, a former Conservative charities minister who lost his seat at the election, also accused the Left of exploiting the tragedy. He said: “There is definitely a move on the left wing to use incidents like Grenfell in a highly political way and to trash the Conservative party’s reputation as a party that cares about poorer people.”
Mr Johnson’s criticism prompted an immediate response from Mr Khan, whose spokesman said: “On the day the Mayor joins the families of those who lost loved ones in the devastating Grenfell fire, who come together to remember those who died, it beggars belief that Boris Johnson chooses to launch such a bitter attack. This demonstrates his breathtaking ignorance of the facts and lack of sensitivity, no doubt motivated by a wish to protect his friends in the council and in the government.”
Sources close to Mr Khan said he had met the victims’ families many times, but had no powers to find homes for people.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, Mrs May said the fire “remains at the forefront of our minds as a truly unimaginable tragedy that should never have happened”.
She added: “I can assure the House that we continue to do everything we can to support those affected and to take the necessary steps to make sure it can never happen again.” The Rt Revd Dr Graham Tomlin, Bishop of Kensington, explaining the ban on the Tory councillors, said many in the community were uncomfortable with the presence of council representatives.
“This situation was explained to senior members who voluntarily chose not to attend to respect the feelings of the community,” he said.
Marie-therese Rossi, Kensington’s Conservative mayor, said she would have liked to have attended the service and was unaware that Labour councillors had been invited.
The news came as it emerged that Class War, a hard-left extremist group, had targeted the homes of four Tory councillors in Kensington two weeks ago, staging protests in the streets.
One Conservative source said last night: “These are anarchists who have hijacked the Grenfell tragedy.”