Tag: fury

Anger over Government’s plan to demolish Grenfell Tower

DECISION IS ‘DISGRACEFUL AND UNFORGIVABLE’, SAY FAMILIES

The Deputy Prime Minister has met bereaved families and survivors of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, and written to both them and residents in the immediate community, to share her decision that Grenfell Tower will be ‘carefully taken down to the ground’.

This is a deeply personal matter for the people affected and the Deputy Prime Minister is committed to ‘keeping their voice at the heart of this process’.

The government says Ms Rayner recognises how difficult it is for them and her priority has been to let them know her decision first – but campaigners say the views of bereaved families have been ignored.

Listening to the community 

The Deputy Prime Minister has prioritised engagement with the community since her appointment in July and has met bereaved families, survivors and residents in the immediate community. 

In November last year, the Deputy Prime Minister explained to families that she would listen to their views and consider expert information before making a decision on the future of the Tower in February.

From November she offered bereaved and survivors the opportunity to meet in-person in North Kensington and Whitehall, or online, at different times and individually when families felt more comfortable with this.

She has also spent time with representative groups, residents’ associations, schools and faith leaders. She is grateful to everyone who shared their view – whether directly with her, with the Minister or officials – and especially to the bereaved and survivors.   

The Tower was the home of the 72 innocent people who lost their lives, and of survivors whose lives were forever changed. It is clear from conversations it remains a sacred site. It is also clear that there is not a consensus about what should happen to it. 

For some, Grenfell Tower is a symbol of all that they lost. The presence of the Tower helps to ensure the tragedy is never forgotten and can act as a reminder of the need for justice and accountability. Being able to see the Tower every day helps some people continue to feel close to those they lost.

For others it is a painful reminder of what happened and is having a daily impact on some members of the community. Some have suggested that some floors of the Tower should be retained for the memorial, others have said that this would be too painful.  

Expert advice 

The Deputy Prime Minister has considered independent expert advice. Engineering advice says that the Tower is significantly damaged.

It remains stable because of the measures put in place to protect it but even with installation of additional props, the condition of the building will continue to worsen over time. Engineers also advise it is not practicable to retain many of the floors of the building in place as part of a memorial that must last in perpetuity.

Taking the engineering advice into account the Deputy Prime Minister concluded that it would not be fair to keep some floors of the building that are significant to some families, whilst not being able to do so for others and knowing that, for some, this would be deeply upsetting. 

How the Tower will be taken down 

The government is committed to taking the next steps respectfully and carefully. There will be continued support for, and engagement with, the community throughout the process. There will be no changes to the Tower before the eighth anniversary.   

In the coming months, the government will confirm the specialist contractor that will develop a detailed plan for taking the Tower down.

The work will be led by technical experts with specific health and safety responsibilities and will include a methodology that includes environmental, health and safety measures and a detailed programme of work.

It will likely take around two years to sensitively take down the Tower through a process of careful and sensitive progressive deconstruction that happens behind the wrapping. 

We continue to support the independent Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission as the community choose a design team to work with them on designing a memorial. The Deputy Prime Minister will ensure that materials from the site, communal areas of the Tower, or parts of the Tower can be carefully removed and returned for inclusion as part of the memorial, if the community wishes. 

Continued commitment for the community  

The department has regularly consulted the Metropolitan Police, HM Coroner and the Grenfell Tower Inquiry to ensure decisions about the site do not interfere with their important work in pursuit of justice and accountability.

The Police and HM Coroner have again recently confirmed they have everything they need.  

The Deputy Prime Minister’s commitment to the community continues. She will ensure bereaved families, survivors and residents continue to have opportunities to speak with her and the Building Safety Minister on issues that matter to them most.

GRENFELL UNITED STATEMENT:

BETRAYED: WASPI women fury over Labour Government U-turn

WASPI women WON’T be compensated

Women who say they weren’t given fair notice about a rise in State Pension age will NOT receive compensation, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall confirmed yesterday.

Angela Madden, chairwoman of Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) said: “The Government has made an unprecedented political choice to ignore the clear recommendations of an independent watchdog which ordered ministers urgently to compensate Waspi women nine months ago.

Waspi campaigner Jan Fulster told BBC Breakfast she feels feels “very let down” by the government. “We’d expected that the government would do the decent thing,” she said.

She adds she was shocked by the decision not to pay compensation because many senior Labour figures had been supportive of the Waspi campaign while in opposition.

“It just feels as if it’s all been a lie,” she says.

WASPI’s response to the Minister’s statement:

“The Government has today made an unprecedented political choice to ignore the clear recommendations of an independent watchdog which ordered ministers urgently to compensate WASPI women nine months ago.

“This is a bizarre and totally unjustified move which will leave everyone asking what the point of an ombudsman is if ministers can simply ignore their decisions. It feels like a decision that would make the likes of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump blush.

“The idea that an ‘action plan’ to avoid such mistakes in future should be the result of a six-year Ombudsman’s investigation is an insult both to the women and to the PHSO process.

“An overwhelming majority of MPs back WASPI’s calls for fair compensation and all options remain on the table.

“Parliament must now seek an alternative mechanism to force this issue on to the order paper so justice can be done.”

UNITE General Secretary Sharon Graham, said: “@GOVUK’s decision not to compensate the @WASPI_Campaign women despite the Ombudsmen’s recommendations is a disgrace.

“Ministers are making the wrong choices – they need to turn back now because voters will not forgive them.”

Labour MP John McDonnell said yesterday: “I am not in Parliament today as I have the flu that’s going round & I am just feeling too ill but having heard of the government’s rejection of any compensation for the Waspi women I believe they will consider this to be a betrayal & I doubt if they will just go away quietly.”

I THINK HE’S RIGHT …

INFAMY, INFAMY: JOHNSON RESIGNS AS MP

‘they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of Parliament’

Former Prime Minster Boris Johnson has announced that he is standing down as an MP, with immediate effect.

The announcement came this evening after Johnson received a report from the House of Commons Privileges Committee into whether he misled Parliament over lockdown parties at Downing Street.

THIS IS JOHNSON’s STATEMENT:

I have received a letter from the Privileges Committee making it clear – much to my amazement – that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of Parliament. 

They have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons. 

They know perfectly well that when I spoke in the Commons, I was saying what I believed sincerely to be true and what I had been briefed to say, like any other minister. They know that I corrected the record as soon as possible; and they know that I and every other senior official and minister – including the current Prime Minister and then occupant of the same building, Rishi Sunak – believed that we were working lawfully together. 

I have been an MP since 2001. I take my responsibilities seriously. I did not lie, and I believe that in their hearts, the Committee know it. But they have wilfully chosen to ignore the truth, because from the outset, their purpose has not been to discover the truth, or genuinely to understand what was in my mind when I spoke in the Commons. 

Their purpose from the beginning has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts. This is the very definition of a kangaroo court. 

Most members of the Committee – especially the chair – had already expressed deeply prejudicial remarks about my guilt before they had even seen the evidence. They should have recused themselves. 

In retrospect, it was naïve and trusting of me to think that these proceedings could be remotely useful or fair. But I was determined to believe in the system, and in justice, and to vindicate what I knew to be the truth.

It was the same faith in the impartiality of our systems that led me to commission Sue Gray. It is clear that my faith has been misplaced. Of course, it suits the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP to do whatever they can to remove me from Parliament. 

Sadly, as we saw in July last year, there are currently some Tory MPs who share that view. 

I am not alone in thinking that there is a witch hunt under way, to take revenge for Brexit and ultimately to reverse the 2016 referendum result. 

My removal is the necessary first step, and I believe there has been a concerted attempt to bring it about. I am afraid I no longer believe that it is any coincidence that Sue Gray – who investigated gatherings in Number 10 – is now the chief of staff designate of the Labour leader. 

Nor do I believe that it is any coincidence that her supposedly impartial chief counsel, Daniel Stilitz KC, turned out to be a strong Labour supporter who repeatedly tweeted personal attacks on me and the government.  

When I left office last year, the government was only a handful of points behind in the polls. That gap has now massively widened. 

Just a few years after winning the biggest majority in almost half a century, that majority is now clearly at risk. 

Our party needs urgently to recapture its sense of momentum and its belief in what this country can do. 

We need to show how we are making the most of Brexit and we need in the next months to be setting out a pro-growth and pro-investment agenda. We need to cut business and personal taxes – and not just as pre-election gimmicks – rather than endlessly putting them up. 

We must not be afraid to be a properly Conservative government. 

Why have we so passively abandoned the prospect of a Free Trade Deal with the US? Why have we junked measures to help people into housing or to scrap EU directives or to promote animal welfare? 

We need to deliver on the 2019 manifesto, which was endorsed by 14 million people. We should remember that more than 17 million voted for Brexit. 

I am now being forced out of Parliament by a tiny handful of people, with no evidence to back up their assertions, and without the approval even of Conservative party members, let alone the wider electorate.

I believe that a dangerous and unsettling precedent is being set. 

The Conservative Party has the time to recover its mojo and its ambition and to win the next election. I had looked forward to providing enthusiastic support as a backbench MP. Harriet Harman’s committee has set out to make that objective completely untenable.

The Committee’s report is riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice, but under their absurd and unjust process, I have no formal ability to challenge anything they say. 

The Privileges Committee is there to protect the privileges of Parliament. That is a very important job. They should not be using their powers – which have only been very recently designed – to mount what is plainly a political hit job on someone they oppose. 

It is in no one’s interest, however, that the process the Committee has launched should continue for a single day further. 

So I have today written to my Association in Uxbridge and South Ruislip to say that I am stepping down forthwith and triggering an immediate by-election. 

I am very sorry to leave my wonderful constituency. It has been a huge honour to serve them, both as Mayor and MP.

But I am proud that after what is cumulatively a 15-year stint, I have helped to deliver, among other things, a vast new railway in the Elizabeth Line and full funding for a wonderful new state of the art hospital for Hillingdon, where enabling works have already begun. 

I also remain hugely proud of all that we achieved in my time in office as prime minister: getting Brexit done, winning the biggest majority for 40 years and delivering the fastest vaccine roll out of any major European country, as well as leading global support for Ukraine. 

It is very sad to be leaving Parliament – at least for now – but above all, I am bewildered and appalled that I can be forced out, anti-democratically, by a committee chaired and managed, by Harriet Harman, with such egregious bias.

ONE of Johnson’s last acts – a final two-fingered salute to the British people – was to reward his cronies with peerages and other ‘honours’.

Some of Boris Johnson’s closest allies – including Priti Patel and Jacob Rees-Mogg – were awarded peerages in the former PM’s honours list, published just hours before Johnson stepped down as an MP.

Former secretaries of state Simon Clarke and Mr Rees-Mogg were knighted, while Ms Patel was made a dame.

Controversial Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen and London Assembly member Shaun Bailey are among seven new peers.

No serving MPs were given peerages, thus avoiding tricky by-elections for the Tories. But there will now be one in Mr Johnson’s own constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip and another one in Nadine Dorries’ constituency.

Johnson devotee Nadine Dorries was not put forward for the House of Lords, despite widespread speculation she would be on the published list.

Ms Dorries stood down as an MP “with immediate effect” just an hour before the honours list was released, oddly enough.