Sam Gyimah suggests Labour rival Emma Dent Coad ‘part of cladding conversations’ that led to Grenfell Tower tragedy
Former Conservative minister-turned Liberal Democrat candidate Sam Gyimah has suggested his Labour rival was partly responsible for decisions that led to the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
Gyimah, who was prisons minister under Theresa May at the time of the 2017 fire that killed more than 70 people, told City PM it was a “deeply complex issue”, caused because the type of cladding meant it was “essentially a candle that people were living in”.
Read more: Stormzy calls on Jacob Rees-Mogg to resign over Grenfell remarks
Asked whether he felt the Tory government’s austerity measures had contributed, Gyimah said: “Many things went wrong and, by the way, Emma Dent Coad was on the council and was part of all the discussions that went on in terms of cladding.
“If we are going to get into the blame game, it’s a very complicated one. To just say ‘of course it’s the Tory government’ – well, the council is responsible, and there were Labour councillors there who could have stopped some of the decisions and didn’t.”
Kensington is one of the hottest battlegrounds in the capital, if not the country, with pollsters Survation calling it a three-way marginal. Dent Coad won in 2017 with a majority of just 20 – the first time the seat had gone to Labour since its 1974 inception.
Dent Coad told City PM: “It is absolutely sickening that Sam Gyimah is trying to shift the blame for the horror of Grenfell away from austerity, which was imposed by his former party the Conservatives and supported in coalition by his current party the Lib Dems.
“Labour councillors, working with the community, repeatedly raised concerns about cost-cutting by Kensington Tories, and residents were ignored when they said this was a tragedy waiting to happen.”
Last week Tory frontbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg was forced to apologise after he suggested he would have ignored firefighters’ advice that people should stay in their flats, saying it was “common sense” to “leave the burning building”.
Gyimah, who defected from the Conservatives earlier this year over Brexit, also rejected the idea that his campaign could split the Remain vote, paving the way for a pro-Leave Conservative candidate to win.
Read more: ‘Serious shortcomings’ of Fire Service ‘contributed to Grenfell deaths’
Although Liberal Democrats have stepped down in other seats where pro-Remain candidates are standing – notably former Tories including Dominic Grieve and Anna Soubry – Gyimah rubbished the idea he should do the same in Kensington.
“Maybe the Labour party should step down, given how they failed, when they were the principal opposition, to deliver Remain,” he said.
“The incumbent might be Remain but her leader is a Leaver – Jeremy Corbyn has had two-and-a-half years to back a People’s Vote and he hasn’t. He has become a supporter of it when it’s too late to implement it and we know he is a lifelong Brexiter.”
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