Nigel Farage sacks Reform UK housing chief after he said Grenfell fire was a 'tragedy' but 'everyone dies in the end'

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Simon Dudley had said the deadly blaze was a “tragedy”, but that “everyone dies in the end”.

The former executive at Homes England and the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation said the pendulum had “swung too far the wrong way” on regulation after the inferno at the west London tower block in 2017.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Farage said: "He’s no longer a spokesperson for the party.

"I haven't spoken to him - he's under Richard Tice's department.

Read more: Grenfell families' fury after government demolishes wall with handprints from night of deadly blaze

"His comments were deeply inappropriate and frankly shocking to many people."

Grenfell United, which represents many of the families bereaved by the fire as well as survivors, said the comments were “not just insensitive” but “deeply dehumanising”.

In a statement on Thursday, the group said: “Our loved ones did not simply ‘die’. They were failed. They were trapped in their homes, in a building that should have been safe, in a fire that should never have happened.

“Reducing their deaths to an inevitability strips away the truth: this was preventable.

“To speak about Grenfell in this way is to erase responsibility.

“It suggests this was just fate, just ‘how it goes’, rather than the result of years of ignored warnings, poor decisions, and a failure to value the lives of residents, and is deeply offensive and ill informed.

“Everyone deserves the right to a safe home. But this attitude clearly shows Simon Dudley is not the man to ensure that happens.”

Sir Keir Starmer had also called on Dudley to be sacked in the wake of his comments.

The Prime Minister posted on X: “Shameful. Nigel Farage should do the decent thing and sack him.”