15/06/2017 Newsnight

Who were they? Almost two days later we don't know the basic thing. What

we do now is it will be more than the 17 officially counted. He tried

to call his family back home in Syria. He said, the fire has reached

me now. I am going to die. Tell my mum and my father, I love them.

How was this building made into a literal death trap?

How many more buildings like it are out there?

The explosion might have happened at one o'clock,

So in half an hour, 13 floors already on fire.

There's to be a public inquiry, so we may not have proper answers

How many different safety concerns have been bubbling under

Group upon group have been lining up to tell the government

that they need to make a review of building regulations and we've

seen building regulations ministers time and time again saying,

And the Prime Minister comes without cameras in tow but only

Is this, like Hurricane Katrina, becoming a defining

We'll ask the leader of Kensington and Chelsea council.

To those of us who have not experienced the trauma

that the residents and families of Grenfell Towers are suffering,

their loss in unimaginable but we sense their rising anger

that they were dealt a dreadful hand.

They lived in a building which was quite simply, not safe.

Repeated pleas by residents and warnings that something awful

The burning building now charred against the blue sky,

may come to symbolise the moment there was a shift in society,

There are so many who have lost loved ones and seen things

no-one should ever see, others who have survived

with life changing injuries, and many who still await news.

Let's get a sense of the mood on the ground.

Joining us from West London is, Derek Wilson, pastor

at the Christian Centre Trust Tabernacle, who has helped

Good evening, Derek Wilson. Tonight, so many people are still missing

their loved ones. Who is helping them tonight? I think what is

happening, reality is beginning to set in. Really, there are no more

survivors. At this time, there is a lot of frustration, a lot of anger

of what has happens, that could have been prevented. And as you are

saying, the realisation for many people that they will have lost

members of their family and eagerness to find some information.

Information we seem to be getting very, very slowly? Absolutely. It is

shocking. What is more shocking is that this industry report that was

released two years ago and was the council's notifier. It could have

been prevented. It just fell on deaf ears and that is why you are getting

the frustration and be anger at this time in the community. Do you think

enough is being done by the council. I know there are so many emergency

centres that have set up, your own church is one, is enough being done

by the council? Well, this is what needs to be answered. There is some

tough questions and some tough answers from this enquiry that needs

to come out. What I mean tonight, pastor, is there enough council

workers on the ground helping, or is it all volunteers? Is the council in

control of the situation? Now there is, because where we have our

church, the food and clothing are beginning to shift at this time. By

tomorrow, I believe everything should be moved out of the buildings

to a central place where those who need it, can get access to it. Are

all the residents who have been saved from the tower, are they being

housed locally, are they being looked after locally? They are still

in temporary accommodation. They are in the Westway, the indoor tennis

court, they need to be housed as soon as possible. Thank you very

much indeed, pastor. Well throughout the day our reporter

Katie Razzall has been in the shadow of Grenfell Towers,

speaking to people who lost loved ones, and others whose

friends and family members are still unaccounted for and also

getting a feel for the solidarity Yesterday, in the afternoon, we were

accommodated. This is where I live, 571. Until the early hours of

Wednesday morning, this man lived in Grenfell Tower. Now his home is a

hotel. He is haunted by what he saw that night and the neighbours but

could not have survived. Being in the building for this many hours, of

course you are not alive. He showed me his videos of the fire. This is

when I phoned my mum. I think I phoned my mum at 1:30am. By then it

is really on fire. He was leaving the cinema with his sister when his

mother called from home to save their block was ablaze. He found her

after an agonising wait. I tried to go inside the building to save my

mum. I saw a firefighter going in at the same time and he stopped me and

said, only people can come out, nobody is allowed in. I said, my mum

is in there. I ran and the first person I saw was my mum. I was so

happy. Happiness and laughter lasted -- lasted for ten to 20 seconds.

People were on the phone talking to their kids, they're why. One man was

telling his wife what to do. We told him to put a wet towel over her

mouth and her daughter's mouth and get on the floor. To help with the

gas, to help with the explosion. Did they get out, do you think? No.

Newsnight understands from a firefighter, they knew after 11am

yesterday morning they would be unlikely to find any more survivors.

It was the worst they had seen in all their years of firefighting.

Block of around 600 hundred inhabitants from diverse

backgrounds, still smoking today. Most of them were Muslims from

Turkey, Somalia, there were English people, black people, black Muslims.

What do we know of who lived in Grenfell Tower. This rainy and bone

man lived in flat ten on the third floor, a floor below where the fire

started. Other survivors include on the ninth sorry, this Moroccan

family who fled when one of them smelt smoke and woke up to see

flames outside. From the 11th floor, this lady who escaped with her

husband and three children when a friend called to tell her of the

fire. It is the poor souls who are missing or dead who keep this man

awake at night. I cannot close my eyes when I know people died in

front of me. You saw it, they do? Yes, I saw people jumping out from

the building. Not one or two, many. Couldn't avoid looking at them.

Yesterday we heard other family on the 21st floor. A 20-year-old with

his parents, brother and sister. There were rumours on social media

the family is dead. Officially, they are still missing. This from a

friend today. It breaks my heart because social media is going out

and things are confirmed. Those messages are going to his family and

friends and it is distorting everything. No one in the tower has

been confirmed. On the 14th floor lived Syrian brothers. University

student Mohammed Alhajali was overwhelmed by smoke while his

friends escaped. It was confirmed he perished after a phone call home to

Syria. He was terrified, he was scared. He had hoped the emergency

services would get to him. Two hours later, he phoned to say the fire has

reached me now. I am going to die. Goodbye to my mum and my father, I

love them. That was the last message from him. The names and faces of the

missing residence of the tower gives a snapshot into a diverse and

tight-knit community. This 79-year-old from the Philippines.

And this month, was about to win an award for his work as a security

guard. The Italians who moved into the 23rd floor three months ago and

this five-year-old who was lost in in the chaos of the evacuation. This

is a community anxiously waiting for news of loved ones and friends. They

were warned today, the police fear they may never identify all of those

who have been killed. Well, this has gone beyond a local

tragedy and become a event that has touched people

across the whole country. And along with that spotlight has

come intense scrutiny of whether politicians at a national

level have done enough in the past But it was also the tone

of the response that drew attention. Theresa May was pictured

meeting the leaders of the London Fire Service,

while Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was filmed

mingling with local people. Our political editor

Nick Watt is here. Nick, how's the political

response going down? How has that political response been

judge? There is those who say it could provide a defining image of

her Premiership. One Tory MP said the Prime Minister is behaving how

she behaved in the election. Her limitations are there for everybody

to see. When Theresa May visits the scene of a tragedy, she always goes

out of her way to ensure she is not a burden on the emergency services.

This was a private visit, there were no cameras and there were limited

discussions with the emergency service leaders and volunteer

leaders, but there was no meeting with the residents. As I understand

it, the Prime Minister wanted to hear directly, on the ground what

had happened, before deciding what to do. She had been told the fire

had spread in a strange, unpredictable and volatile way and

when she heard that, she said there are huge questions to be answered

and so later on, she announced there will be a judge led public enquiry

and she says that will report properly. Thank you very much.

Nick Paget-Brown is the Conservative leader of Kensington

Good evening. When will you last in Grenfell Tower? I went to the

opening of the dale boxing club last summer, just after the end of the

refurbishment of the tower. We were delighted, not only had we found

more homes in the tower through a judicious conversion of certain

rooms, but we got the boxing club, so I went to a happy opening. So not

up the tower? In the tower, up a level, then when the refurbishment

was completed, we went into a flat further up to look at the new

kitchen and heating system and the new windows. At that stage you were

aware of concerns about the refurbishment? Some residents were

very concerned about the whole concept of the refurbishment. Some

residents were pleased it addressed the problems they had with heating,

either being hot or cold. We had invested ?10 million to deal with

their problems. We will know more about what will go wrong in the

public enquiry, there are certain things we can talk about now because

this is your area and things will have to move quicker than the public

enquiry, one assumes. How many towers in Kensington and Chelsea

have similar cladding? As far as we know, there are no other towers

without cladding. No other old towers have modern cladding? As far

as I am aware no other towers in Kensington and Chelsea have that

particular form of cladding. You won't be putting cladding on like

that with the same components in the future? No. How many towers do you

have without sprinklers? That will vary, according to what the fire

inspection requires they have. New towers do have sprinklers, some old

towers don't, how many old towers don't? Some of the old towers before

the 1970s won't have integral sprinklers. I cannot give you a

number. You have not checked up since the fire? We have looked at

the London Fire Brigade to check on all the towers and make sure all the

safety in all the towers, if they can give is the assurance we need

that all of those towers are saved and comply with fire standards and

regulations. We will talk about wrinkles in a

moment but in the refurbishment, did you consider retrofitting

sprinklers? I did not consider that, but what you try to do when you are

refurbishing is contain a fire within a particular flat so that the

Fire Service can evacuate that flat, deal with the fire. Do you wish now

that you had splinters? Because from the black canal house case, in 2013,

the coroner wrote to the governor saying that retrofitting of speakers

may now be possible at lower costs than had previously been thought.

And a report said they reckon that Grenfell Tower could have been

retrofitted with sprinklers which would have helped with this fire for

?200,000. And we know the residents were talking about the issues of

sprinklers. Why was retrofitting sprinklers not considered? Because

there was not a collective view that all the flats should be fitted with

sprinklers because that would have delayed and made the refurbishment

more destructive. Delay would have been less important than having a

fire? We're talking retrospectively after the most enormous tragedy.

Many residents felt that we needed to get on with the fitting of

boilers and heating systems and to retrofit more would delay the

building and that sprinklers were not the answer. Do you regret that?

I regret anything that we might have done differently that would have

avoided the tragedy. But right now, when talking about the response

right now, and we know this from residents, they have been put in a

local hotel last night, and they were not told until lunchtime

whether they would be able to stay there. They were not told whether

they would be allowed to have food, and they were told the council would

come and they did not come. The truth is that you cannot cope with

this. I am being honest and I think that we have coped with it as well

as we can after eight tragedy of this dimension. We have host people.

But you do not have the council workers to deal with traumatised

families. You promised the council would come to see them but you

cannot deal with that when people are grief stricken. We have three

emergency centres and we have councils... It is about people you

are housing and you said you would visit them and nobody has visited.

My understanding is that housing officials are and will visit them

but there are issues about people... You feel is to look after them once

and you are feeling to look after them twice. I hope that we are not,

I hope we are fitting them into safe temporary accommodation while we are

working out the long-term challenges they face. -- you were feeling to

look after them once and you are feeling to look after them once.

Theresa May did not meet residents today, because of security concerns.

Is that not a dreadful error of judgment? All I can talk to you

about is what the local authorities doing to improve the lives of

people. She is your conservative leader. Should she have met

residents, should she should she not? She did not meet residents

because she did not want to interfere with the work of the

emergency services. That would not have interfered. I have met people

within the emergency centres and I am delighted to welcome anybody,

including the Secretary of State, and they will meet residents and

here the problem. We have asked the government for help with more

housing accommodation. We need to house people permanently, not just

temporarily. David Lammy this morning alleged that this was

corporate manslaughter. Do you recognise that possibility? I think

that is a matter for the enquiry and I will not comment on any of these

allegations because I think that would be the wrong thing to do. I

understand it and I appreciate it but I think my job is to make sure

that the borough, and those people whose lives have been devastated, I

need to focus my energies on them and I do not want to be brought into

political slanging matches. Let's look at the national picture.

Chris Philp is the Conservative MP for Croydon South.

Andy Slaughter is Labour's shadow housing minister.

His Hammersmith constituency is adjacent to Grenfell Tower.

First of all, a lot of high-rises were built under various

government's watches. How many decades old buildings do not have

sprinkler systems? Many will not have sprinkler systems and the

recommendation on retrofitting which we have heard from 2013 has not been

implemented. In fact it was rejected. The lack house disaster

was on Labour's watch and they did not pursue the recommendation. --

the Lakanal House disaster. It is a political issue. It is. And to

correct you on that point, the coroners letters came out in 2013

and they are the ones that were not permitted. I think the issue here is

that this is on a completely different scale to any previous

fire. So we have a situation where you have in the space of 15 minutes,

the fire spreading from one corner of the block to the entire block.

But in lots of Labour councils throughout the land there are

buildings which have been required. There are also building that do not

have Spengler systems. -- buildings which have been reclad. Is there

going to be an assessment made to see what problems there might be?

The truth of the matter is that if buildings are reclad in materials

similar to this, that could be problems. That is the priority

question. Many councils like my own, I'm doing the assessment right now

and I expect to report tomorrow but this has to be a job for central

government. Cannot wait for a public enquiry to make these analyses of

whether there are other tower blocks at risk. That has to be our number

one priority. Even if their rent any, people will be worried that

there are. Thank you. Turning to you, Chris, John and Neil from the

Fire Service regulations have said that the relations were resisted

because no body was dying in these buildings. Did Grenfell Tower have

to happen before people would take action? A meeting was set to occur

when the election was called. But four years, four years? 2013 and

2017. The truth of the matter is that if something similar had been

found in an aircraft, because of cladding that was not suitable or

the fact that sprinklers were not fitted, it would be shut down, but

the problem is that people who do not have any power lives in these

high-rise buildings and nobody listens to them. Going back to the

coroners report, one of the recommendations was that the

Secretary of State right to social housing providers asking them to

consider fitting sprinkler systems and Eric Pickles did that

straightaway. Some councils responded immediately. But some

wanted the central government to allow them to carry more debt? The

building we are looking adhere had a ?10 million refurbishment very

recently and I have seen the figures. It would have only cost

?200,000 to put in sprinklers, and it was not a question of money, it

was a question of priorities. Something extraordinary clearly

happened in that building and we need to find out as a matter of

urgency exactly what it was. Was at the cladding, the lack of

sprinklers, was it something else? Whatever happened in the building,

we need to make sure that it never happens again. But as well as that,

somebody unusually will have to carry the can. I think is that

public enquiry, led by a judge appointed by the Lord Chief Justice,

so completely independent and able to call any witness, if they find an

individual or corporate body failed in their duty, then clearly

prosecutions should follow. But that is something that the public enquiry

will have to look at and report upon. What do you think the

government should do in the interim? In the interim, it has to do with

two things. They have to give reassurance to the hundreds of

thousands that lived in tower blocks that they are safe but it also has

to give assurances to the people who live around Grenfell Tower, who are

justifiably very angry that their concerns have not been listened to.

Setting up that enquiry, it has to be open and transparent and people

have to be persuaded, as they are not at the moment, that it is going

to find the truth and if people are responsible, they must be punished.

There will be an early interim report after a couple of months, and

if there is any critical failings, like if the cladding is highly

flammable, which was suggested, we need to know about that in a matter

of weeks. And move people out of the buildings. If other buildings have

that dangerous cladding, immediate action will need to be taken in a

matter of weeks and months. You are suggesting that if there is similar

cladding on other buildings, people should be moved out immediately. If

it is flammable, yes. Let's talk about Theresa May. We understand

that she did not want to interrupt the work of the emergency services

or volunteers, but she chose not to meet residents. It was cited as

being for security concerns. People could have met her in private, and

it would have been perfectly safe to meet people. Did you think that

showed somebody that was showing a compassionate side? I'm not sure if

it was just security concerns. I think she was keen not to intrude

and cause disruption at a time of anxiety and grief. The people

concerned were still searching for loved ones. Is it not important to

have the Prime Minister show she cares? She is trying to be practical

and talk to the emergency services, to find out what needs to be done

rather than grandstanding. I am sure she will meet families but the day

after they have lost their loved ones, the last thing you need is the

Prime Minister of the country elbowing her way in. To be honest, I

have spent a few days down there with Jeremy Corbyn. People did not

think he was intruding, they thought he was showing simple human sympathy

and kindness. Thank you both very much indeed.

The Public Inquiry will take evidence from all manner of experts,

contractors, councillors, emergency services,

community organisations, politicians and hopefully residents,

but it doesn't take a public inquiry to say that a review of building

regulations covering fire safety was promised by Theresa May's

chief of staff last year but has not been published.

The reason for that review was the fatal Lakanal House fire

in 2009 a multi-storey block in which six people died.

The coroner in the Lakanal House Inquest said that the government

should encourage providers of high rise housing to consider

retrofitting sprinkler systems - there was none in Grenfell -

and there are 4000 tower blocks in the UK that

We'll be talking to the lawyer for the Lakanal residents in a second.

But first, last night our policy editor Chris Cook reported

on details of the material with which Grenfell was cladded.

He's been looking more closely at this issue.

One of the most important questions to answer quickly is,

how many other buildings are at risk from fires

of the sort that devastated the Grenfell Tower.

Right now, that's a very hard question to answer.

To really understand the tragedy that

unfolded this week in Kensington, it may help to appreciate a success

Back in 2012, there was a major fire on the 17th

A pensioner's flat was completely destroyed.

It was contained by the walls and floors and the external

So the fire brigade were able to get here

and stop it from getting into any other flats.

A personal tragedy was prevented from becoming a much

One explanation for why the fire spread so quickly in

the Grenfell Tower was that the fire appears

to have spread over the outside of the building

That's insulation added to the exterior of the building

This broad design of cladding is in wide use.

You pin a layer of insulation material to the outside of the

Then add a waterproof layer to guard against the weather.

It was this outer layer that Newsnight

revealed yesterday, was of a design that

wasn't as fireproof as it might have been.

But experts have also called into question whether there's

Not with Grenfell Tower in particular,

but with materials being used in general in cladding.

The Fire Protection Association has been

conducting tests on widely used insulation material, for example.

Typically, we will fill a wheelie bin with cardboard, plastic bottles

and normal stuff you see in a normal recycling bin.

We put it up against the cladding and set fire to it.

You get some initial charring, but within a very short space

of time, the fire has got into the expanded

Theresa May today announced an enquiry.

Whether we take enough care to keep such

combustible material safely boxed in is one of the questions it

I am today ordering a full public enquiry into this disaster.

We need to have an explanation of this.

We owe that to the families, to the people

who have lost loved ones, friends and the homes

One of the first questions, though, is how widespread is the

sort of arrangement we saw at the Grenfell Tower

Where we've seen the widespread insulation of buildings,

retrospective insulation of buildings, is generally

The insulation materials of choice tend to be combustible or

It's very rare that I'm seeing installed in

residential accommodation noncombustible insulation material.

We may have problems because we are quite slow

I'm absolutely amazed that your regulations haven't been looked

at for over ten years, as I understand it.

With all of the developments happening with

materials, we see some of these fires that

are occurring around the world, we have lessons that we learn

from other countries, new materials that are being developed,

A 10-year plus review of regulations, I don't think

But there's been resistance in Whitehall to

regulation reform and in part, it's because

Conversations we've had with officials at DCLG, very recently

have pointed out that people aren't dying in these buildings.

And so, while no one was dying, it didn't matter?

Group upon group have been lining up to

tell the government they need to make a review

A full explanation of the tragedy will

The fire penetrated the building very deeply, so why didn't its

internal fire brakes hold the fire back?

Do we need sprinklers in more buildings?

Sophie Khan acted as lawyer for the residents group

of the Lakanal House fire in 2009 in which six people died.

Went you saw the fire, it must have brought back all the mammaries? Did,

and questions have to be asked that after how a very detailed inquest,

and a report to the government, why this could happen again? Is the

right way a public enquiry? No, the right way is inquests. The families

have a right to participate, they have a right to cross-examine upper

questions to the experts and able to get their own experts if the coroner

gets permission. The coroner is independent of the government. In a

public enquiry, it is very much government lead. And ice right in

saying no way, any resident family member take place in a public

enquiry? Not in a public enquiry, very limited rules in a public

enquiry, it is government-controlled, government

outcome. Was this unavoidable? 100%. The sprinklers, even though it

wouldn't have said the building, I think it would have said the

individuals inside the building. It would have given them time to get

out. The building, I I believe, would have perished. Is it your

experience that residents Association are not listened to?

Yes, but also the fire assessments, we have to look at the fire

assessments. Here, there is a fire issue, not just a council we need to

look at. What whether Fire Brigade doing? The refurbishments have been

done, what tests did they do on the building? But these are questions

the residents will not be able to ask in the public enquiry. In your

view, is this an intended consequence of the public enquiry or

do you think it is worked out a position that if the government goes

for a public enquiry and not an inquest, they will be not subject to

the same scrutiny? That is correct. In an inquests, they lose control of

what a jury verdict will do. And I jury will come out with narrative

verdicts which may be difficult for the government... One of the other,

you cannot have both? Only one or the other. Would you urge the

residents to kick up a fuss? Yes, they should be demanding an inquest

from the government to say, this isn't the right way, we don't want a

public enquiry, we want an inquest. I am concerned why the Prime

Minister came out to say so quickly, public enquiry. What does she know

that needs to be heading? Thank you very much.

The tragedy of Grenfell Tower has all but blotted out

the post election turmoil, delaying any deal negotiations

between the tories and the DUP to prop up Theresa May.

Nor does the shape of the impending Brexit negotiations,

and questions over an all party team punch through the still

In fact it's hard to focus on the fact that there was a general

election exactly a week ago, but now there are extraordinary

details emerging of the way that that election was played,

or rather mis-played by Theresa May and her now sacked

I'm joined by our political editor Nick Watt.

The negotiations between the government and the DUP are still

ongoing. Arlene Foster stepped back yesterday after the fire but they

are still talking. Downing Street can be confident the confident will

support the Queen's Speech and that is why they were able to announce

the Queen's Speech will take place next Wednesday. But they are not

there on the second part of the deal, support and supply. The

Treasury's job is to ask difficult questions. The reason why the reason

may is having to talk to a party with just ten MPs because her

election gamble failed. I have spent the last few days just trying to

work out what exactly happened in that election campaign.

She was Britain's new iron Lady who would deliver

Threats against Britain have been issued.

And tackle deep injustices overlooked by generations

And then against the better instincts of this

most cautious politician, she took the gamble of her life and failed.

Are you stepping down Mrs May? Clearly this was a catastrophe of a

campaign. She had given people a choice, told them to choose her and

then she had. She wasn't strong and stable. Theresa May has apologised

to Tory MPs who believed the Prime Minister and her tiny, and now

former circle of advisers to await the selection in the finest

tradition, a blame game is underway. Insiders who toiled away here at

Tory HQ have identified two fundamental flaws with the campaign.

There was no clear line of authority between the main figures. Nick

Timothy and Fiona Hill and the Australian polling guru, Sir Lynton

Crosby. And then, there was what has been described as complacency. The

Number Ten in a circle never feared they would lose this election so

they never took Jeremy Corbyn seriously. After a less than

friendly welcome, the defining moment of the campaign came in the

wake of the manifesto launch. Within days, Theresa May was forced to

embark on a hasty U-turn over the electoral pledge, the so-called

dementia tax. Newsnight understands the two Cabinet minister is with

responsibility for social care, Jeremy Hunt GIB Javad, were only

informed of the policy in the 24 hours before the launch of the

manifesto. Instead, the social care section drew on initial work from a

green paper led by a Cabinet minister who co-authored the

manifesto. I have been told other Cabinet ministers were consulted on

those parts of the manifesto related to their briefs. But ministers were

only given a copy of the whole manifesto, shortly before the launch

and about 20 minutes before the media. Even the head of the Prime

Minister's policy board wasn't consulted. I wouldn't expect in a

snap election, get signed off by Cabinet and goes through a series of

negotiations, presumably and discussions. I wouldn't expect to be

holding the pen on the last draft. But I didn't see any draft. I think

there was a culture in the campaign, we, the five or six of us are going

to do this. There was this huge policy on the controversial issue of

social care and how to fund it. And obviously fraught with political

risk that they don't seem to have checked in research, they don't seem

to have squared it with people in the party and it landed like an

unexpected bomb right in the Tory heartland. I think people were

looking for a middle way. There must be a middle way between the Jeremy

Corbyn approach. Here is the cookie jar, help yourself, the rich will

pay. And us, we will take your kid's school meals away, which we had to

explain, that is not the case. We will take your grandparent's house

away, which also wasn't the case. I closed the last page and felt this

sinking feeling, the manifesto is supposed to offer hope and a

brighter future to people. This does not love the above. It literally

tells people, your life is going to be really bad if you vote for this

manifesto. Within days of the manifesto launch, and irritated

Prime Minister said that a cap would be introduced. Nothing has changed,

nothing has changed. This featured in early work of the Green paper but

it wasn't in the manifesto because it hadn't been finalised. It turned

out voters were so confused they asked Labour to explain the

manifesto from the Tories. People were worried about how they would

heat and whether they would be able to keep their homes. Member of

Theresa May's inner circle feel deeply bruised over the fallout of

the manifesto. On social care, they said the Prime Minister was

motivated by fairness. Why should a young person living in the North

subsidise the care costs of a pensioner living in the South in a

house worth ?1 million. It is a choice between strong and stable

leadership under the Conservatives... One of the aspects

of the campaign was the disappearing act performed by one of the central

messages, Theresa May's strong and stable leadership. The strong and

stable thing worked for about two days, resonated for two days, then

people were sick of it because it was literally repeated. I don't know

when that was dropped. I know with our local campaign, we dropped

saying it very quickly because of the reaction we got. That was

probably the way it was dropped around the country bag other

candidates as well. Lynton Crosby was the author of this message and

he is also blamed for the highly personal attacks on Jeremy Corbyn.

This dismayed one of the architects of the Tory modernisation project.

There was an attempted character assassination, which I think was

quite likely to do what it did, repel far more people than it

attracted. Lynton Crosby has told friends about his frustration with

the campaign, puts one old friend thinks he will recover. You win some

and lose some. It shouldn't affect his reputation. For what he does, he

doesn't make the speeches. He doesn't choose the Shadow Cabinet or

the Cabinet, he isn't involved in that side of it. For what he does,

he does that pretty professionally. But it is no guarantee that you are

always going to win an election. Theresa May is now fighting to keep

the Tories in office and avoid another election. Amid widespread

agreement among her MPs that she needs to stand down before then, one

senior figure says the party should develop a more positive outlook with

an emphasis on schools and skills. I think this very narrow shrill,

divisive partisan insistence that Brexit was ever think, quite a hard

Brexit message. I think people started to think, if that is the

Conservative Party, if it thinks everything will be solved by Brexit,

it isn't in tune with us. I think the campaign let Theresa May down.

That speech on the streets of Number Ten last year achieved huge approval

across the country. Theresa May had thought by now, she would be

settling back into Downing Street with an emphatic electoral mandate.

Instead, the legacy of her troubled campaign is a new life as the

surprise leader of a minority government. And this negotiations

with a minor party and even factions within her own Cabinet to ensure the

survival of her government. We leave you with some

of the messages written on the wall outside Latymer Christian Centre

in the last two days. They reflect the grief that has

engulfed that part of London, and also the quite anger of people

still looking for answers. Good evening. A cold front moved

across the country introducing fresh air today and that is good news in

terms of the feel through the night. More comfortable for trying to

sleep. There will be