Labour MP: Those responsible for Grenfell must face criminal accountability

Those responsible for the Grenfell Tower disaster must face “criminal accountability”, the Labour MP for Kensington and Bayswater said.

Joe Powell also argued that companies named in the Grenfell report should no longer receive contracts or public money from the Government, and sporting organisations should revoke sponsorship deals.

Speaking at the Labour conference in Liverpool, he said: “A report from a public inquiry is not the same as justice, important though it is.

“So we do need to see criminal accountability for those responsible for what happened at Grenfell Tower.

“We need to ensure that all the companies named in that report do not receive public money, we need to ensure that sponsorship deals are ended by sporting organisations that still associate themselves with those companies.

“And we need to ensure that the remedial work on buildings up and down the country where tens of thousands of people are still going to sleep in unsafe buildings is sped up as quickly as possible.

“And we do need to make sure that the full recommendations from the report are considered and responded to by the Government.”

Earlier in the session, Sonya Howard, who spoke on behalf of Unison, made an emotional address.

Ms Howard, secretary at the union’s Kensington and Chelsea branch, was visibly upset as she started her speech, before adding “don’t cry” as she held back tears.

She went on to say: “The members I represent have worked and continue to work in the community devastated by Grenfell, many of them lived there, some losing friends and family.

“On behalf of Unison, I want to say that no words can ever capture the horror of that night and the years (of) pain for everyone touched by that tragedy.

“The report, and the harrowing testimony it contains, makes for excruciating reading that shows the awful cost of slashing public services and cutting corners.

“Yes, lessons need to be learnt immediately and that means removing all the unsafe cladding that every tower block in this country still has.”

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