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Grenfell raises ‘fundamental questions about the kind of country we are,’ says Starmer
Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks to the media outside Arden Academy in Solihull, West Midlands, August 8, 2024

GRENFELL raises “fundamental questions about the kind of country we are,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the Commons today after the publication of the Moore-Bick report into the catastrophe.

He said that the report revealed a Britain “where the voices of working-class people and those of colour have been repeatedly ignored and dismissed” and promised a fundamental shift in culture.

Mr Starmer also apologised on behalf of the state, pledging to speed up the removal of unsafe cladding on other buildings around the country and block companies criticised in the report from winning future government contracts.

Independent Alliance MP Jeremy Corbyn told MPs: “Those of us that have been on the silent walks for Grenfell every year fully understand the deep anger in the community at this needless loss of life brought about by a contract culture, deregulation, privatisation, ignorance, and, frankly, contempt for working-class communities.”

And Labour MP Florence Eshalomi said: “Grenfell laid bare the sad truth around the stigma attached to social housing.

“It is the stigma attached to people who are actually from all walks of life who pay their rent on time, but yet are treated with that disdain by housing providers.

“And this report states that their voices were ignored. This is unforgivable.”

Labour’s Clive Efford said the report showed that “the state that should be on the side of ordinary people actually becomes the enemy of working-class people.”

Diane Abbott, Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, argued that the victims of the fire “were among the most marginalised and largely people of migrant heritage” and wanted guarantees that “it will not take seven years to bring those responsible to justice.”

Independent MP Zarah Sultana praised “the heroic bravery of firefighters who attended that night. The FBU has long said that deregulation and corporate greed was at fault for this catastrophe, and this report vindicates that.”

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