UK
GRENFELL Victims' fury as Tory MPs block fire reforms
Kensington MP Felicity Buchan among Conservatives who stopped push for swifter action
GRENFELL campaign groups and the Labour Party slammed the Tories today for voting against proposals to implement safety recommendations from the inquiry into the blaze.
On Monday night, 318 Tory MPs, including Felicity Buchan, MP for Kensington, where the tower’s remains stand, voted against acting on the recommendations proposed by Labour in an amendment to the Fire Safety Bill.
The amendment was tabled after it emerged that over 80 per cent of private-sector accommodation and nearly 50 per cent of social-sector buildings with Grenfell-style flammable cladding have not had the dangerous material removed.
It sought to implement the recommendations of the Grenfell Tower inquiry’s phase one report published last October, which states that the removal of aluminium composite material cladding “should be pursued as vigorously as possible.”
Ms Buchan was elected in 2019, succeeding Kensington’s first-ever Labour MP Emma Dent Coad. She won by 150 votes after the vote was split by Lib Dem candidate Sam Gyimah.
In the Conservative manifesto on which Ms Buchan was elected, it says: “We have already committed to implementing and legislating for all the recommendations of the Hackitt Review and the first phase of the independent inquiry.”
Grenfell United said it was “outraged” by Ms 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. Thousands still in dangerous homes.”
Justice4Grenfell urged Ms Buchan to state why she voted against Labour’s amendment.
Ms Dent Coad described the Tories’ actions as “just despicable.”
“Why bother with the inquiry when they disdain findings?” she added.
Shadow justice secretary David Lammy said that Ms Buchan had “let the victims and their families down.”
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner pointed to promises made by Downing Street on the third anniversary of the fire.
On June 14, Downing Street was lit up green in memory of the 72 people who lost their lives in the west London blaze.
Downing Street’s tweet accompanying the photo said at the time: “We remain committed to uncovering the causes of this tragedy and ensuring it is never repeated.”
Ms Rayner said: “So why did Tory MPs, including the Tory MP for Kensington, vote down an amendment to implement the recommendations of Phase 1 of the Grenfell Tower inquiry last night?
“You should be ashamed of yourself Boris Johnson, if you were capable of it.”
The Fire Brigades Union tweeted: “Every single Tory MP who voted against this amendment should hang their heads in shame.”
Ms Buchan claimed that Labour was “trying to play politics with this tragedy” and was “misrepresenting the vote in the House of Commons.”
She said that the Tories’ vote was based on concerns regarding “sequencing for the legislation to be properly enacted.”
She added that she and the government were “absolutely committed to implementing the first phase recommendations of the Grenfell inquiry.”
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