A damning report into the Grenfell Tower tragedy must “ensure that such a tragedy cannot occur again”, Keir Starmer has said.
The lengthy public inquiry into the west London blaze, which killed 72 people in 2017, blamed “decades of failure” by successive governments, officials and the construction industry.
Sir Martin Moore-Bick, the inquiry chairman, said the deaths were “all avoidable” if warnings had been heeded and the correct safety measures put in place.
“Those who lived in the tower were badly failed over a number of years and in a number of different ways by those who were responsible for ensuring the safety of the building and its occupants,” he said.
Over three decades, governments had “many opportunities” to identify the risks posed to high-rise budlings by flammable cladding and insulation, but none were taken, Sir Martin said.
By 2016, the year before the fire, the report says the government was “well aware of those risks, but failed to act on what it knew”.
He also hit out at the “systematic dishonesty” among those who made and sold cladding panels and insulation products which ended up on the outside of the tower.
Sir Martin said: “We conclude that the fire at Grenfell Tower was the culmination of decades of failure by central government and other bodies in positions of responsibility in the construction industry to look carefully into the danger of incorporating combustible materials into the external walls of high-rise residential buildings and to act on the information available to them.”
Responding for the government, the prime minister said: “My thoughts today are wholly with those bereaved by, and survivors of, the Grenfell Tower tragedy and the residents in the immediate community. This day is for them.
“I hope that Sir Martin’s report can provide the truth they have sought for so long, and that it is step towards the accountability and justice they deserve.”
He added: “The government will carefully consider the report and its recommendations, to ensure that such a tragedy cannot occur again.
“I hope that those outside government will do the same.”
London mayor Sadiq Khan said the residents of Grenfell Tower “paid a price for systemic dishonesty, corporate greed and institutional indifference and neglect”.
“The Grenfell Tower fire isn’t just a heart-breaking tragedy, it’s a horrific injustice and a national disgrace,” he said. “That the lives of 72 Londoners were stolen from us in such circumstances is a moral outrage.”
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said: “Dangerous cladding must be removed from all buildings as quickly as possible.
“The government must also act on the rest of the Inquiry’s findings with the urgency they demand – to hold those responsible to account and prevent another disaster like this from ever happening again.”
