PM hopes ‘harrowing’ Grenfell report strengthens faith in inquiry

Boris Johnson says that the “harrowing” report into the Grenfell fire should strengthen survivors’ faith in an inquiry into the blaze.

Seventy-two people died in the fire, which tore through the 24-storey tower block in June 2017, but its has taken until this week for the findings to be made public.

There had been doubts expressed by survivors and bereaved relatives that the investigation would hold people to account over the disaster.

However, Mr Johnson said: “(Survivors and relatives) asked for the truth. We promised them the truth. We owe them the truth. And, today, the whole country, the whole world, is finally hearing the truth about what happened at Grenfell Tower on 14 June 2017.

“For the survivors, the bereaved, and the local community, this report will prove particularly harrowing.

“Yet I hope it strengthens their faith in the Inquiry’s desire to determine the facts of the fire – and in this government’s commitment to airing those facts in public, no matter how difficult they may be, and acting on them. That commitment is absolute.”

On Monday details of the inquiry’s report were revealed – two days before they were intended to be made public.

While it praised the bravery of individual firefighters, it criticised the London Fire Brigade, particularly over its “stay put” strategy.

The strategy meant residents were told to stay in their flats by firefighters and 999 operators for nearly two hours after the fire started just before 1am.

Inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick described the advice as an “article of faith within the LFB so powerful that to depart from it was to all intents and purposes unthinkable”.

He also said “the LFB’s preparation and planning for a fire such as that at Grenfell Tower was gravely inadequate.”

General Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, Matt Wrack, told the BBC: “Firefighters’ actions on the night, which were remarkable in the circumstances, are now being scrutinised.

“Nobody is trying to avoid scrutiny, but we think that the ordering of the inquiry is completely back-to-front.”

The prime minister added: “I am very much aware that no report, no words, no apology will ever make good the loss suffered and trauma experienced.

“But I hope that the findings being published today, and the debate we are holding this afternoon, will bring some measure of comfort to those who suffered so much.”

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “I pay tribute to the heroic actions of firefighters in our country every day, including on the night of the Grenfell Tower fire.

“It wasn’t firefighters who diluted building regulations or put flammable cladding on Grenfell Tower.”

The fire started as the result of an “electrical fault in a large fridge-freezer” in a fourth floor flat but the resident of the flat was not to blame, the inquiry found.

The principal reason the fire caused such severe loss of life was the combustible aluminium composite material cladding with polyethylene cores which acted as a “source of fuel”, Sir Martin said.

Phase 2 of the inquiry will examine the circumstances and causes of the disaster.

(c) Sky News 2019: PM hopes ‘harrowing’ Grenfell report strengthens faith in inquiry