Grenfell Tower Inquiry: Family members call for arrests to be made

By Julia Gregory, Local Democracy Reporter

Victims of the Grenfell Tower tragedy who lost family members are calling on the police to start making arrests.

Clarrie Mendy lost her cousins Khadija Saye and Mary Mendy in the fire in 2017 which claimed their lives and those of 70 of their neighbours.

Ms Mendy said: “I hope the Metropolitan Police are here today. Because people need to get arrested this week.”

Her comments came as it emerged that the manufacturers of the cladding used on the Grenfell Tower “refurbishment” had been aware of problems with the building material.

Emails from the cladding manufacturers sent in 2013 were read out at the Grenfell Tower Inquiry which stated the material “should have been discontinued 10 years ago”.

The 24-storey tower in north Kensington was refurbished between 2015 and 2016 and signed off as safe by Kensington and Chelsea council in July 2016, less than a year before the fatal fire.

Sir Martin Moore-Bick, chairman of the inquiry, made clear in his report into the first phase that Grenfell Tower was not building compliant after the work was finished.

He said the fire spread so aggressively because of the flammable cladding which was put on the tower.

Ms Mendy said the emails which detailed concerns about the cladding were “shocking revelations”.

But she said “it’s a blame game” as different companies have explained how they were not aware of problems with the cladding.

Bereaved and survivors group Grenfell United’s Karim Mussilhy lost his uncle Hesham Rahman at Grenfell.

He said: “It’s incredibly difficult and frustrating to sit here and hear these organisations passing the buck and blaming each other. It’s clear that all of them had a role to play in the disaster.

“A priority for us has been the removal of the cladding that’s been out there in the rest of the country. People are still unsafe in their homes. We know how dangerous the cladding was.”

Nabil Choucair, who has spoken openly about the toll revelations have on bereaved relatives, said: “We expected them to be passing the buck. It’s the only way that they can drop the blame on each other.”

He renewed calls for flammable cladding to be removed off all buildings – private and public.

“It’s too slow. It is down to one thing,” he said. “Life is not priceless. Money is priceless.”

Nick Burton, who lost his wife Pily, said: “It’s passing the parcel like a hot potato.”

He said the community faced a “long-haul” over the next year-and-a-half of the inquiry.

“Everybody wants justice, sometimes we have to have forgiveness as well.”

A protest was staged outside the inquiry in Westbourne Park to raise attention to concerns about the urgency of following the key safety recommendations from the first stage of the inquiry.

Elizabeth Campbell, leader of Kensington and Chelsea council, said the authority will lay bare some of its failings in its opening statement at the inquiry later this week.

It emerged that cladding manufacturer Arconic had concerns about the product back in 2013.

Marcus Taverner QC said Arconic knew the product would be used on Grenfell, that it was higher than 18m and it had seen the specification for the building back in 2013.

He told the inquiry: “We have recently seen information that suggest that Arconic knew that Reynabond PE in general and cassette form in particular was dangerous”.

He said there were emails from a company executive saying they “should have been discontinued 10 years ago”.

Felicity Buchan, who was elected as Kensington’s MP in December, said it was “critically important” that recommendations to toughen up fire safety and building regulations were done “with a real sense of urgency”.

She said: “I think that the government gets that”.

The Conservative MP said she has met with as many of those bereaved at Grenfell and the community since her election.

“We need to get the truth out on what happened,” she said.