'Britain failed to protect you': Keir Starmer tells Grenfell families state is 'deeply sorry' for systemic failings
4 September 2024, 14:16 | Updated: 4 September 2024, 17:15
The Prime Minister has apologised to the families of Grenfell Tower victims on behalf of the state, telling those affected he is "deeply sorry" for failings which led to the tragedy.
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Speaking from the Commons on Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer promised to make building safety a priority as he apologised to the families of the Grenfell Tower victims - many of whom were present in the House of Commons gallery.
"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. It should never have happened," Starmer admitted.
Speaking following the release of the long awaited Grenfell Inquiry report into the tragedy, the PM said the country had "failed to discharge its most fundamental duty - to protect you and your loved ones".
The PM added: "I am deeply sorry."
It follows the the final conclusion of the inquiry, which found a “culmination of decades of failures” by the government and members of the construction industry led to the disaster.
72 people were killed in the fire in London’s North Kensington in June 2017.
The long-awaited conclusion, chaired by Sir Martin (Moore-Bick), found there was a “complacent and defensive attitude to fire safety” within Government, with ministers repeatedly failing to act on warnings about the dangers of the flammable cladding.
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"After all you've been through, you may feel you're always one step away from another betrayal, I get that, and I know I cannot change that with just words today," Starmer said following the report on Wednesday.
Read more: How Grenfell cladding firm Celotex 'manipulated' fire safety test results to 'break into market'
The PM vowed to "demand" building safety standards improve during his appearance in the Commons, adding: "I consider myself someone responsible for building safety, and that is exactly what I will do, and what I will demand of this Government."
The Prime Minister went on to reference the disaster, broken promises to the victims and the lack of trust families must now hold in the state.
"What I can say is, I listened carefully to one of the members of the inquiry, Ali Akbor, this morning who said this: 'What is needed is for those with responsibility for building safety to reflect and to treat Grenfell as a touchstone in all that they do in the future'."
It comes as insulation firm Celotex, who provided cladding material that covered 95% of the tower - and was one of seven firms criticised in the report - continued to deny responsibility.
It added its "marketing literature met the relevant safety criteria" following the fire, despite the inquiry finding it had "manipulated" fire safety tests to "break in" to the industry.
In response to the report, the PM continued: "Sir Martin (Moore-Bick) concluded this morning, and I'm afraid there's no way of repeating this that won't be painful, he said the simple truth is that the deaths that occurred were all avoidable.
"That those who lived in the tower were 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.
Starmer added: "In the face of an injustice so painful, so deserving of anger, words can begin to lose their meaning."
Adding those families involved were "still waiting for the justice that you deserve".
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"I want to say very clearly, on behalf of the country, you have been let down so badly before, during and in the aftermath of this tragedy, and while Sir Martin sets out a catalogue of appalling industry failures for which there must now be full accountability, he also finds, and I quote, decades of failure by central government," Starmer concluded.
The inquiry found that organisations who made and sold the products, used on Grenfell Tower, were “deliberately dishonest”, with one firm - Celotex - said to have manipulated a test on its insulation to “mislead the market”.
Another company - Arconic Architectural Products - which was responsible for manufacturing the cladding panels, was found to have been “determined to exploit weak regulation in the UK” despite recognising the danger they posed.
Responding to the inquiry, Arconic said it was its subsidiary, Arconic Architectural Products SAS (AAP), which had supplied the material used for cladding in the tower's refurbishment, and that it rejects "any claim that AAP sold an unsafe product" and "did not conceal information from or mislead any certification body, customer, or the public".
Grenfell Tower Inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick said the deaths of 72 people in the 2017 fire were "all avoidable".
