Grenfell update – Tories show contempt for working class lives
On June 14th 2017 a catastrophic fire broke out in Grenfell Tower in North Kensington and killed at least 72 people. An inquiry to be headed by retired judge Martin Moore-Bick was set up shortly afterward to look into the disaster.
The Inquiry was to be split into two parts: the events of the night in Phase 1, with a look into the wider situation to follow in Phase 2. Many, including the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), explained that the investigation was taking place back to front. What was important was to know why the tragedy occurred in the first place and to look at the events later.
So it proved to be the case. Phase 1 concluded by including criticisms of fire fighters, who had risked their lives on the night, without investigating the reasons for the disaster.
Grenfell is in a working class enclave of the ‘royal’ Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, one of the poshest places in Britain. There is longstanding suspicion that the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (TMO) had nothing but contempt for their council tenants. Certainly the block had been recently refurbished with cheap cladding that spread the fire throughout the tower on the night - with catastrophic results.
The suspicion that it was not just the TMO but the whole establishment that is dismissive of the suffering of the Grenfell community has been strengthened by the behaviour of the Chair, widely known as ‘Mr Whitewash’. Phase 1 was closed in October 2017, but Phase 2 is still ongoing – it was suspended in March because of the pandemic. It has reopened in early July but survivors and the bereaved are not allowed to attend! Apparently they are unimportant to the inquiry. How can they achieve closure and grieve? They see that, for them three years on, “Nothing has changed.”
Actually Moore-Bick has made some recommendations:
·There should be national guidelines to investigate high-rises
·urgent inspections of fire doors contained in all multi-residential buildings
·legal requirement for the owners or managers of multi-residential buildings to check fire doors at least every three months
·legal requirement for the owners or managers of high rise buildings to provide details of external walls and the materials used to the local fire service
·legal requirement for the owners or managers of high-rise buildings to provide paper and electronic versions of building plans to local fire services
·legal requirement to ensure all high-rise buildings have a premises information box which includes a copy of floor plans
·regular inspections of lifts required for use by fire-fighters and the mechanism that allows them to take control of it.
We can agree that, if not revolutionary, these recommendations are the minimum beginnings of an attempt to make sure such a tragedy can never happen again.
In 2019 the Tory Housing Secretary, James Brokenshire, promised to implement them “in full” and “without delay”. The Tories had the ideal opportunity to carry out their promise (and not before time) when the Fire Safety Bill came before Parliament on September 7. Labour took the opportunity to propose the amendments based on the Inquiry’s recommendations. The Tories chose to oppose the proposals and to instruct their MPs to vote against.
Labour leader Keir Starmer called the Conservatives’ actions a “shameful dereliction of duty.” Most shameful of all was the behaviour of the local Tory MP Isabel Buchanan.
A little background here: One minor miracle of the 2017election was the election of Kensington and Chelsea’s first-ever Labour MP, Emma, Dent Coad.
Emma is a sturdy supporter of the Grenfell Support Group and defended their justified complaints about the way the Inquiry dragged on. Buchan was elected as MP in 2019. She won by 150 votes after the vote was split by Lib Dem candidate Sam Gyimah (formerly a Tory MP). Grenfell United lost a committed supporter in Emma.
The Conservative manifesto (on which Buchan was elected) declared: “We have already committed to implementing and legislating for all the recommendations of ...the first phase of the independent inquiry.”
So what happened next? Buchan voted against the Bill with whining excuses. Local people knew exactly what she was up to. Grenfell United said it was “outraged” by Buchan’s vote against the Labour amendment.
“It’s no surprise as the government continues to fail the country — almost a year since the recommendations and so little has been done. As the FBU says, “Thousands of residents are still living in dangerous buildings.”
Emma Dent Coad described the Tories’ actions as “just despicable.” “Why bother with the inquiry when they disdain findings?” she added.
The lesson here, depressing as it is, is that the Tories care nothing for working class lives.
