Sir Keir Starmer has said he is “deeply sorry” for the actions of the British government after a damning report into the Grenfell Tower blaze said ministers “failed to act”, despite knowing the risk of building materials.
A landmark report into the disaster that claimed 72 lives in June 2017 was published earlier on Wednesday, with the chair of the Grenfell Inquiry Sir Martin Moor-Bick saying the government was “well aware” of the deadly risks posed by combustible cladding and insulation a year before the fire.
The report also said there was “systemic dishonesty” from cladding and insulation companies and a “toxic” relationship between the tower’s residents and the Tenant Management Organisation (TMO), which was responsible for running services.
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Making a statement to the Commons – and watched from the gallery by some of the Grenfell community – the prime minister quoted Sir Martin’s findings, saying: “The simple truth is that the deaths that occurred were all avoidable.
“Those who lived in the tower badly failed over a number of years, and in a number of different ways, by, as the report lays out, in full, just about every institution responsible for ensuring their safety.”
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Pointing to the report’s conclusion that there had been “decades of failure by central government” and that ministers’ desire to cut so-called “red tape” had “dominated the department’s thinking to such an extent that even matters affecting the safety of life were ignored, delayed or disregarded”, Sir Keir said sorry.
“I want to start with an apology on behalf of the British state to each and every one of you, and indeed to all of the families affected by this tragedy,” he said.
“It should never have happened. The country failed to discharge its most fundamental duty to protect you and your loved ones, the people that we are here to serve, and I am deeply sorry.”
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‘Human life was never a priority’
The prime minister said Wednesday’s “long awaited day of truth… must now lead to a day of justice”, as he pledged to ensure “full accountability, including through the criminal justice process… happens as swiftly as possible”.
He confirmed ministers would write to all the companies named in the report as “the first step to stopping them being awarded government contracts”, and would support both the police and prosecutors in their investigations going forward.
And he promised “more radical action to stop something like this from ever happening again”.
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Sir Keir said the government would look at all of the recommendations in the report and respond within six months, and he pledged to hold a debate on the issue in the Commons.
“But there are some things I can say right now,” he added, including speeding up the removal of cladding – with a legal requirement to force action – and ensure all new homes built are safe and secure.
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The victims of Grenfell Tower
The Labour leader also revealed he had made a private visit to Grenfell Tower two weeks ago to lay a wreath and give his commitment to the work towards a memorial on the site.
He said: “As I walked down that narrow staircase from the 23rd floor and looked at walls burned by the thousand degree heat, I got just a sense of how utterly, utterly terrifying it must have been.
“And as I saw examples of the cladding on the outside of the building and listened to descriptions of the catastrophic and completely avoidable failures of that fateful refurbishment, I felt just a sense of the anger that now rises through that building.
“And it left me… with a profound and very personal determination to make the legacy of Grenfell Tower one of the defining changes to our country that I want to make as prime minister, to the families, the survivors and the immediate community.”
Responding to Sir Keir’s statement, former prime minister and Conservative leader Rishi Sunak said the report was “a damning indictment of over 30 years of successive state failures”.
He also offered his “deepest apologies to the families and victims”, adding: “The state let you down, and it must never do so again”