Keir Starmer issued a heartfelt apology for the Grenfell tragedy today after a report laid out a damning picture of how victims were ‘failed’ by the state.
The PM said sorry on behalf of the government as he insisted during a Commons statement that the 72 deaths ‘should never have happened’.
He said all those affected had been ‘let down very badly before, during and in the aftermath of the tragedy’,
Sir Keir told MPs that the findings made him ‘bristle with anger’ and vowed to ensure that such a disaster ‘can never happen again’.
Almost every organisation involved in the refurbishment and management of the 24-storey, 120-apartment block in Kensington, west London, was found to shoulder some responsibility for the ‘decades of failure’ which contributed to the tragedy on June 14, 2017.
‘Unscrupulous’ manufacturers involved in the renovation of the 67-metre-tall tower a year earlier – including covering it in highly combustible cladding – were admonished for ‘systematic dishonesty’ and for ‘misleading customers’.
Architects demonstrated a ‘cavalier attitude’ to fire and safety regulations, while contractors and the cladding specialists did not properly concern themselves with the matter either.
Grenfell United, which represents some of the families, said Sir Martin Moore-Bick’s findings made it clear their lawyers were correct to tell the inquiry that corporate bodies, such as Kingspan, Celotex and Arconic, were ‘little better than crooks and killers’.
On the day the report was released:
MailOnline looks at how the disaster unfolded, minute by terrifying minute;
A series of missed opportunities to prevent the inferno have been revealed; and
All 72 victims of the blaze were remembered, seven years after their deaths.
Keir Starmer said sorry on behalf of the government as he insisted during a Commons statement that the 72 deaths ‘should never have happened’
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The Grenfell Tower fire in West London in June 2017 left 72 people dead in a shocking tragedy
The 72 victims of the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017 are pictured as follows – (top row left to right) Mohammad Al-Haj Ali, Ya-Haddy Sisi Saye, also known as Khadija Saye, Anthony Disson, Khadija Khalloufi, Mary Mendy, Isaac Paulos, Sheila, Gloria Trevisan, Marco Gottardi, (second row left to right) Berkti Haftom, Ali Yarwar Jafari, Majorie Vital, Yahya Hashim, Hamid Kani, Jessica Urbano Ramirez, Zainab Deen, Nura Jemal, Jeremiah Deen, (third row left to right) Yasin El-Wahabi, Firdaws Hashim, Hashim Kedir, Debbie Lamprell, Ernie Vital, Sakina Afrasehabi, Denis Mur-phy, Raymond ‘Moses’ Bernard, Biruk Haftom, (fouth row left to right) Yaqub Hashim, Mehdi El-Wahabi, Ligaya Moore, Nur Huda El-Wahabi, Victoria King, Mo-hammed Amied Neda, Maria del Pilar Burton, Hesham Rahman, Gary Maunders, (fifth row left to right) Alexandra Atala, Vincent Chiejina, Steve Power, Rania Ibrahim, Fethia Hassan, Hania Hassan, Fathia Ahmed Elsanousi, cara bermain di sensa138 Abufras Ibrahim (silhouette), Isra Ibrahim (silhouette), (sixth row left to right) Mariem Elgwahry, Eslah Elgwahry (sil-houette), Mohamednur Tuccu, Amal Ahmedin, Amaya Tuccu-Ahmedin, Amna Mahmud Idris, Abdeslam Sebbar (silhouette) , Joseph Daniels (silhouette), Logan Gomes, (seventh row left to right) Omar Belkadi, Farah Hamdan, Malak Belkadi (sil-houette), Leena Belkadi (silhouette), Abdulaziz El-Wahabi, Faouzia El-Wahabi, Fatemeh Afrasiabi, Kamru Miah, Rabeya Begum, (eighth row left to right) Mohammed Hamid, Mohammed Hanif, Husna Begum, Bassem Choukair, Nadia Choucair, Mierna Choucair, Fatima Choucair, Zainab Choucair and Sirria Choucair
Exhausted firefighters rest at the scene of the huge blaze at Grenfell Tower in June 2017
Composite photograph showing how fire swept through Grenfell Tower in West London in 2017
Jessica Urbano Ramirez, 12, was on floor 20 and died two weeks before her 13th birthday
People receive treatment at the scene of the Grenfell Tower fire in West London in June 2017
Rania Ibrahim (right) and her two children Fethia Hassan (left), four, and three-year-old Hania Hassan (centre) were on floor 23 and died in the fire
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