22/06/2017 Victoria Derbyshire

Hello, it's Thursday, it's 9 o'clock, I'm Joanna Gosling,

Forced to resign - the boss of Kensington

and Chelsea Council Nicholas Holgate steps down amid criticism

over the response to the Grenfell Tower fire -

he says he was told to leave by the government.

Labour says it was the right thing to do.

He had to go, his council went awol in the days after this terrible fire

at the time when the victims, survivors, whose family

still looking for their family members who were missing,

More on that to come. Plus we will have a report on the number of other

tower blocks who have the same cladding as Grenfell Tower.

Also on the programme...a warning to parents over the latest chat app

aimed at teenagers our reporter was shown guns and pornography.

I am on an app called monkey, where I can basically talk

to strangers around the world for 10 seconds , i've heard people

lying about their age, people have made sexual

and offensive remarks to me and i've even been shown hard core porn

That'll is Tory coming up around 9:15am. -- that full story.

Prince Harry tells US magazine Newsweek that none of the Royals

really wants to be King or Queen, but they act from duty.

He also criticises the decision to make him walk behind

We'll be speaking to the reporter who interviewed him over

Welcome to the programme, we're live until 11 this morning.

Do get in touch if your children have stumbled

across inappropriate content online or if you have views on any

Use the hashtag Victoria LIVE and If you text, you will be charged

Our top story today...The chief executive of Kensington and Chelsea

borough council says he has been forced to resign over the response

The Government has denied forcing the resignation

of chief executive - Nicholas Holgate, who said

he had been forced to quit by the Communities Secretary,

The leader of the council Nicholas Paget-Brown also

appeared to distance himself from the dismissal.

It leaves it unclear who actually sought Mr Holgate's resignation.

And why, as the Prime Minister herself has now

admitted, was the response following the fire inadequate?

The support on the ground for families in the

initial hours following the fire was not good enough.

People were left without belongings, without roofs

over their heads, without even

basic information about what had happened and what they should do and

That was a failure of the state, local and

national, to help people when they needed it most.

As Prime Minister, I apologise for that failure.

That apology after so much anger in the

Some of it directed at the government, some at

Now the chief executive of Kensington and Chelsea

Council says the government has forced him to resign.

In a statement, Nicholas Holgate said despite wanting

in very challenging circumstances, he risked becoming a distraction.

He said his team had always worked with

New flats have now been allocated for survivors of the fire.

So far, victims have received some ?700,000 from

But a Conservative government and council are still

Why wasn't more done to improve fire safety in tower blocks

before a tragedy on this scale could happen?

Tom is here with me, is there any clarity on why he has gone? No,

complete confusion this morning, this is the statement we got around

midnight last night, I am in, yes, working this morning, this is the

exact wording so people cannot accuse us of misreading it or

twisting it, he said this that Sergey Abbey, although he did not

name him specifically required the leader of the council to seek my

resignation so he's saying he was pushed by the government. Then we

are getting a statement from the government this morning from the

department that Sergey Javi Ros saying actually it wasn't ours,

that's a matter for local council, the resignations of local

councillors, and we have the leader of the council a Conservative

leader, Nick Javad -- Nick Nicholas Paget Brown, and he said Nicholas

Holgate was doing a great job and we didn't want him to leave. We haven't

heard directly from Sajid Javiid. The only people saying that directly

is labour. Let's hear from John Healey.

He had to go, his council went awol in the days after this terrible fire

at the time when the victims, survivors, whose family

still looking for their family members who were missing,

And they needed someone to reassure them, coordinated the relief effort,

we didn't see anyone on the ground in the days after the fire. He had

to go. It seems the government is getting its act together. You have

the Prime Minister in the Commons yesterday saying hands up, some

things went wrong at a national and local level, but then, clearly, the

government strategy is all hands to the deck, they have this special

task force for Grenfell Tower 24-hour phone lines, and they have

handed out almost ?600,000 to victims, survivors, relatives,

people affected, 65 new-build flats allocated so far, most people's

housing requirements already assessed, some still to go, but they

say that main goal of rehousing people locally within the borough

will happen soon. Thank you so much. The Prime Minister is due

to give a statement in the Commons later this morning

on the Grenfell Tower Block fire. And just after ten o'clock,

our reporter Jim Reid has been looking into Tower Blocks -

thought to use the same type Let's catch up with the rest of the

news. Annita McVeigh is in the BBC

Newsroom with a summary Theresa May is expected to offer

certainty to EU nationals living in the UK when she meets

with European leaders It will be the Prime Minister's

first encounter with the other 27-leaders since she lost her

parliamentary majority and formal Our political correspondent

Ben Wright reports. It was a Queen's Speech

dominated by Brexit. My government's priority

is to secure the best possible deal as the country leaves

the European Union. With Britain set to leave the EU

by March 2019 there is a vast amount of law to pass by a government that

does not have a majority And today, Theresa May heads

to Brussels for the first time since she lost her Commons majority

in the general election. Brexit negotiations began on Monday

and one of the big sticking points is how to secure the status

of the more than 3 million EU nationals living

in the UK and the 900,000 This evening, Theresa May will set

out her vision to the leaders of the other 27 member states

in Brussels, something she refused to be drawn

on during the election campaign. Labour says these rights should be

guaranteed immediately. How this early part

of the negotiation goes could be crucial in setting the tone

for the rest of the Brexit talks. The government is to use money

from its aid budget in an attempt to reduce the flow of migrants

from Africa across the People who have started

on the journey will be encouraged to return home; there will also be

help for those in need. The UN says seventy thousand have

made that journey so far this year - Two men have died after a crane

collapsed at a building site in Crewe. Another man believed to be

the crane driver is in hospital with serious injuries that aren't thought

to be life-threatening. The occupants of a house damaged by the

falling crane went injured. The Duke of Edinburgh has spent a second

night in hospital as a precautionary measure after being admitted with an

infection arising from a pre-existing condition. Buckingham

Palace says Prince Phillip who's 96 remains in good spirits and is up

and about inside the King Edward VII Hospital. He missed the state

opening of Parliament yesterday, his place was taken by the Prince of

Wales. Prince Harry has suggested no wonder no royal family wants to take

over from the Queen. In an interview with Newsweek he said is there any

one of the Royal Family who wants to be king or queen? I don't think so

but we will carry out our duties at the right time. He also criticises

the decision for him to walk a long way behind his mother's coffin at

her funeral in 1997. Many of the UK's top universities have failed to

secure a gold award in teaching standards. Of those who took part in

the eight were given a gold rating. Some of those ranked silver and

Bronze have questioned the criteria used in the scheme. The Iraqi and US

military says so-called Islamic State militants have -- blown up a

great mosque in Mosul. It's for the leader of Islamic State made his

only public appearance after proclaiming a new caliphate three

years ago. The Iraqi Prime Minister says blowing up the building is an

admission of defeat by jihadist. A well-known lifestyle blogger in

France has been killed by an exploding cream dispenser. Rebecca

Burke's death was announced in what her family, domestic accident, the

did these the -- the device was believed to have exploded and struck

her chest, pension media reporting she died of cardiac arrest despite

receiving medical attention. That's the latest news. More at 9:30am.

Joanna. Thank you. Get in touch with us, we are going to be talking about

the monkey app chat, there are concerns there may be inappropriate

content on it and certainly our reporter who tried it but was

exposed to some quite shocking things when she tried it. We'd love

to know if it's something you use or you are concerned about what your

kids are doing. Whether you think there are enough controls. Get in

touch. Text is charged at the standard network rate. Let's catch

up with all the sport. We note the Lions starting at 15 for the first

test against New Zealand. What kind of the team has been picked? And

attacking one which I think will please purists. Peter O'Mahony

captaining the side, Sam Warburton starting on the bench. Owen Farrell

will start at fly half, he said after picking up an injury earlier

in the tour. The backs, the interesting selection, Elliot Daly,

Ian Williams and Anthony Watson select that. There is the captain,

that selection in the back by Warren Gatland suggesting he would try to

attack and look to score tries against the world champions. That

will please those who will be excited to see him adopting the

strategy. Let's hear from him. You see we picked the team on form and

layers that are probably, be a lot of differences from the start of the

tour to now in terms of what people speculated the side would be and I

think the messages we have tried to deliver our consistent from us, now

that 23 have been selected, we are pretty excited. England's cricketers

showing some form yesterday, how was that different to the champions

Trophy display? England against South Africa, both sides struggling

a little bit in the recent champions Trophy but England, I think,

delighted to get off to a winning start in the T 20s, Jonny Bairstow

scoring 60 not out, duty impressive, England winning by nine wickets,

restricting South Africa 242-3, England going on to win with 33

balls to spare. Real improvement for England, they played well in the

champions Trophy but that was a tournament they were expecting to

win, they'll be pleased they got off to a winning start as they look to

continue to build a reputation as an improving side in the shorter

formats of the game. Finally, ladies Day at Arscott? Absolutely, needs no

introduction, expect hats and high fashion, as you can imagine. Very

strict dress code as you can imagine in the Royal enclosure for women in

particular, birds and dresses above the knee, no fascinator is, that is

very important, he did listen the dress code. Because of the hot

weather, Cuba and conditions, expect it to stay dry and for gentlemen and

the Royal enclosure, top hats must be black or grey, West Coates and

morning suit is the dress of choice. As far as the racing today, the

4:20pm, the Gold cup, the signature race. It dates back to 1807 and if

anyone wants a flutter, you have to say, the favourite today, Order Of

St George trained by Aidan O'Brien who has a huge reputation in this

race, winning it seven times previously, that is probably for

your money wants to go. I will see about that. I think I may have

misheard but I think you might have heard in the Royal enclosure it's

obligatory that dresses and skirts are just above the knee... Just

above the knee. I wasn't sure how for -- short they were forcing

people to work. I was worried about the Queen. Thank you! Head teachers

and parents have been warned that a new chapter in the teenagers could

expose them to extras are conversations. Monkey app allows

people to be the chat from strangers across the world ten seconds with

the option of talking for longer. Any child 13 can sign up, we have

censored the film we are about to show you but covers graphic themes

you may not want to watch. That lasts about three minutes. The

makers of the app says safety is the primary concern which is why the

encourage users to read and follow the community guidelines and say

inappropriate behaviour is rare. Our reporter Amber had reports.

I am on an app called Monkey where I can basically talk

to strangers around the world for ten seconds.

I've heard people lying about their age, people have made

sexual and offensive remarks to me, and I've even been shown hardcore

I signed up for this app as my mid-20s self,

and I was connected to a whole array of people, including many men who

It's incredibly inappropriate content on an app that

Any child over the age of 13 can sign up for this app, and it claims

to match you with people who are a similar age to you,

although there really doesn't seem to be many checks in place.

We managed to sign up on another phone as a 13-year-old girl

and spoke to kids around the world, including some here

Monkey say they rely on other users to report it if people

are lying about their age or they have acted inappropriately.

They say they will review the case and if you have broken the rules,

But despite all these measures in place, it does

Well, the makers of the app declined our request

for an interview but they said safety is their primary concern.

They added while inappropriate behaviour is rare, it can happen

and we request that users report it to us by tapping the policeman icon

so we may ban users who have violated our community guidelines.

We look forward to keeping Monkey fun and safe for young people

Let's speak now to Lorin LaFave, who founded the Breck Foundation,

after her 14-year-old son was mudrered, after being groomed

online, Megan Kyrionymou, who is a youth worker,

Welcome all of you. Lauren, you actually have heard about this app

and decided to go on it with your daughter to see what it was about.

As an experiment, to see what is going on out there because of the

work we do with the foundation and I was shocked. What did you find?

Immediately there was a lot of crude sexualise languid and gestures, most

of them, boys and men, were older, and they were in bed, and were mass

debating, and we did see a Venus. She is 15 and a half. It is

something she might come across on her own but I was glad I was sitting

next to her. Did she go on with her real age because under the

guidelines of her app, she should not be connecting with adults. It

just came up. They all said they were teenagers but there were men

who looked like they were in their high 20s. But they were very crude,

and I just wonder what sort of value system to the people using this app

have, because they called her ugly, it was like we have just heard,

asking her to do things. Using the F word. There was nothing nice about

it. I could see it was exciting and an interesting thing to do. In what

way? Because every ten seconds you get to see a surprise guest. So it

is not all like that, you can get some nice surprises. And some people

don't show their face at all, and then you are just like, it is kind

of boring. My favourite, it look like a young guy who had a great

voices sang a song for her, and I think that is most more dangerous,

because it was not showing his face, but he is singing a song that every

girl, he didn't know my daughter yet. Basically getting at those

heartstrings, may be building a relationship and that was worrying.

Megan, you worked with kids as a youth worker, what have they said to

you about this app? First of all they were showing me because they

thought it was quite funny, and every other person that I did link

in with, they were masturbating to these young people. And again, was

this adults were saying they were younger and getting connected to

kids? Yes, the app says between the ages of 13 and 19, and when adults

are logging in, they are putting in a different age, pretending to be a

17-year-old from a different country, and then when you see them,

they are a grown adult with full facial hair. Lisa, the makers of the

app say if people are doing that it is very easy to get rid of them

because there is a policeman I can, you reported and they get blocked.

But that is after the event has happened, after the child has

already been exposed to inappropriate content or perhaps

started that connection with a person, and what is concerning is

that you can then take that connection to another app like

Snapchat, so it is not just restricted to ten seconds. That

child has already seen inappropriate content, may have already made

contact and followed up on that content, and we know that groomers

can work very quickly to establish that initial relationship and take

that contact the maybe further online abuse, but also potentially

making contact abuse subsequently. So we are really concerned about

this and what we would like to see is that rather than waiting for

after the event has happened, that we build safeguards into the

internet. Howdy you do that, though? As with any app you have to put in

details but it is very easy to put fake details. We have commitment to

age verification, which needs to be robust, not that you just put in the

age want to be. How can age verification be effective? It would

mean that where it is restricting children to contacting children,

that would be the case. In a practical sense, how does that

happen? Without getting into the technical detail, there are

third-party ways of establishing an age verification process. It can

easily be done? It can be done, it has been agreed by the government

that will be very important, but then we need a regulator to make

sure that the apps are applying that. Those internet companies and

social network sites have to be held to account so if they are failing to

protect children in this way, they are held to account and that is

built in. We can also build in some minimal standards, so that after

having the conversation after the app is already out there, we have

this conversation and minimum standards and protection are built

into them. Lauren, the creator of the app say that it was designed by

teams, and they view their -- by teenagers. Sometimes teenagers are

embarrassed to tell their real-world friend something that an intimate

friend can help with. You have been through a horrendous situation, in

that your son, Breck, was groomed by somebody online, he thought it was a

friend online, and obviously just with terrible consequences for all

of you. How do you view the idea of online friends? I think in this

case, the way that app is set up, it is too easy for people to make a

game of it. There are not to be people who want to meet friends,

they want to have a laugh, see how rude they can be and get away with

it. It will be up to the application makers, so that if anyone is blocked

or reported they will act on that. Maybe the at IS could get a bit

cleaner after time -- may be the app could get a bit cleaner after time,

but it is too easy to act inappropriately when no one is in

that room with you guiding you are making sure you are doing the right

thing. What scares me is when you look down at the terms and

conditions, there are a lot of helplines for someone who might be

in crisis or need help. That is great but what made me think is if a

child is in crisis, they go on there and they meet someone who doesn't

care about them, you know, that could be even worse for them. For

asking them to do self harm, something sexual they are not ready

for. So the fact that you have to put all of these links on to keep

them safe reminds me that the reason they might be going on there in the

first places because they are vulnerable and looking for some of

help. So it would be safer if they would go directly to the helplines,

rather than find them on the bottom of this app, which I don't think

children would find, it was only because I was searching it out.

Thank you, and let us know your thoughts. If you have any experience

that you want to share. Finding a new home for

the Dale Youth boxing club - destroyed in last week's

fire at Grenfell Tower. It's helped nurture dozens of

champions at all levels, including Olympic gold medal winner

James DeGale and current world Next this morning -

Prince Harry has told a US magazine that no-one in the Royal Family

wants to be king or queen, adding that "we are not doing this

for ourselves but for the greater In an interview with Newsweek,

the Prince also criticises the decision for him to follow

Princess Diana's coffin at her funeral procession in 1997,

a week after she died With me is Angela Levin -

she's the award-winning journalist who interviewed

Prince Harry for Newsweek. Talking to him over the past year

for Newsweek. So you had amazing access to Prince Harry. Yes, the

whole piece took me about a year to do. A while to get them to agree.

There were various places he would offer me where he was going and I

would say yes please, that's lovely. I didn't actually talk to him

personally, I was one of people who were wandering around and listening

to what he was saying. Every now and then he would give me a very quick

look to tell me that he knew I was there. So you were sort of sizing

each other up at that stage? Very much so, exactly right, because my

aim was always to get a conversation with him, which is very, very rare.

And I knew I had to present myself in the best possible way. So it

sounds like then, obviously when you got to that conversation, there was

a level of trust, because it sounds like he was pretty open. He was

pretty open. It took me a while. I had been doing interviewing for a

very long time. As you know, you wait for the opportunity and you ask

the question. I met him twice. At the end of the first one, which was

the longest one, he did say, this is on the record, so I have felt

totally able to use it. I came out of there and I leapt in the air

because I thought, this is good stuff. This is the one he said about

no one wants to be King or Queen. And also about walking behind his

mother's Coughlin, which actually if somebody imagines that to a

12-year-old who is very sensitive is the most horrific thing to do in

public -- about his mother's Tampa. These are the pictures. He was a

12-year-old boy, and as you say, you sort of let you in now to those

private thoughts the has about that moment. Do you know, I think it is

probably something that happens in retrospect, because when you are 12

you don't want to do something but you know you have two, everybody

tells you around you you have to. You are not in a good state, so you

do that. But as he probably went through his teenage years, he would

probably think, hello, this is not right, I didn't want to do that. And

I think when he went through his bad patch in his 20s, that came up even

more. It had just stayed down there. You look at his face, it is

absolutely in anguish, and he is holding his hands behind his back,

obviously feeling totally alone and devastated, watching something that

is horrific for any child to see, really, their parent's coffin. So

how much did he say around this? Does he feel that it did make things

worse of the fact he was thrust into the limelight in that way so

quickly? I think the whole thing was a build-up of not having his mother,

and the difficulties that ensued. Whatever Diana's issues were, and

the public did find some of it unappealing, he was her son. He said

she always made everything fun, she was always very emotional, she loved

him a great deal and they just loved being with her. She made them laugh,

and I think a mother who makes you laugh and gives you lots of love is

a good thing. And she had flaws, but they loved her as her mother and

Harry has similar characteristics. He is very charismatic. I watched

him anywhere, and he had people eating out of his hand very, very

quickly. In making the criticism of the

decision, did he pointed any word in particular? No, he didn't, and I

didn't want to push on because I thought that was an incredible

comment to say and if I pushed him he might have retreated, you know,

you get something quite precious and you hold onto it as it is. And he

also said, but he doesn't believe anybody wants to be king or queen,

they do it out of duty. I think that is because they both want to be

ordinary which they cannot be, this whole touchy, really, New Age Royal

Family want to have a private life, they are not like the Queen who they

absolutely marvel at, she is totally dedicated to them but the thing was,

when she was much younger and her children were much younger she would

go and see the horses first then she came back from a royal visit rather

than her children and they have missed out on so it's come down to

the next generation and they want to be able to do things, to do what

they can do, and that's why they want to and they tried to remodel

the monarchy when William takes over after Prince Charles and make it a

much more open, Feeley type of thing, they really get involved, for

instance in charity. They don't want their name just on the top of the

page and turn out once a year, they want to get involved, all this talk

about mental health which has been incredibly powerful, they have given

of themselves which is absolutely extraordinary. End of a stiff upper

lip, I don't know quite whether that's a good thing or not but

that's what they're after. When he's talking about no one wanting to be

king or queen is he effectively saying Prince Charles is the last of

that generation that has that duty. No, I don't think so, I think they

have a tremendous sense of duty, Prince Harry in particular was very

keen on saying they do believe in the monarchy, they think it's an

enormously good institution, it's just that the restrictions and what

they cannot do and how they have to behave, you want to remodel. I don't

think for a second they wouldn't take up the responsibility. Angela,

thank you. Well done for securing that and getting such an insight.

Thank you. We can just show you some pictures of the hospital, Prince

Philip being treated, we had news yesterday he had been taken into

hospital for routine tests, we were told yesterday, we understand he may

be leaving that hospital now this morning. A statement from Buckingham

Palace yesterday said the Prince had been taken in, he stepped down from

royal duties earlier this year. He is now in his 90s and has been

taking it easier but he is 96, actually, taken to hospital on

Tuesday evening in what the Palace described as a precautionary

measure. They have said he is in good spirits in hospital, we gather

he is going to be leaving shortly. We will keep our eyes across that

Still to come... and keep you updated.

The Prime Minister is due to make a statement on the Grenfell Tower

fire. And also... in the flames at Grenfell tower,

is planning to fight Here's ANNITA in the BBC Newsroom

with a summary of todays news. Thank you, Joanna and good morning.

The government has denied forcing the resignation of the Chief

Executive of Kensington and Chelsea borough council.

The chief executive of Kensington and Chelsea borough council says

he has been forced to resign over the response to the fire

The leader of the council Nicholas Paget-Brown also

appeared to distance himself from the dismissal.

Theresa May will head to Brussels today to raise the issue of future

rights of EU citizens living in Britain, a day after

the Queen's speech which was dominated by Brexit.

It will be the Prime Minister's first encounter with the other

27-leaders since she lost her parliamentary majority and formal

negotiations to leave the European Union began.

The Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has said Mrs May will make

a generous offer, and he hoped the rest of the EU would respond

The government is to use money from its aid budget in an attempt

to reduce the flow of migrants from Africa across the

People who have started on the journey will be encouraged

to return home; there will also be help for those in need.

The UN says seventy thousand have made that journey so far this year -

Two men have died after a crane collapsed at

Another man, who is believed to be the crane driver,

is in hospital with serious injuries that aren't thought

The occupants of a house damaged by the falling

We are now going to hear from Theresa May in the House of Commons.

I felt that was essential to bring this to the attention of the house

this morning. Mr Speaker, what happened in the early hours of last

Wednesday was one of the most open -- unimaginable tragedy is our

country has seen recently. As of this morning 79 people are confirmed

dead or listed as missing presumed dead and with work on going to

recover the bodies sadly the death toll may rise further. We already

know many children are among the dead and that in some cases whole

families perished. And those who survived have lost loved ones,

friends, neighbours and in many cases everything they own. Mr

Speaker, it should never have happened. In a feud moments I will

say how we are going to discover why it did but as I said yesterday, that

initial failure was then compounded either fact that the support on the

ground in the initial hours was not good enough. As Prime Minister I

have apologised for that second failure and taken responsibility for

doing what we can to put it right. On my first visit to North

Kensington I met with emergency services, these extra ordinary men

and women put their lives on the line in an effort to save others and

by first responsibility was to check they had everything they needed. I

then visited Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, and met some of the most

seriously injured survivors. It was from that experience I decided we

had to have an emergency fund, I also met a group of residents in

Kensington who I invited to Downing Street last weekend, I returned to

Kensington last night to hear directly from them about the

progress we are making. Mr Speaker of what became clear very quickly is

that the royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea could not cope and it is

right that the Chief Executive Officer has now resigned. It is also

why I said up the Grenfell Tower recovery task force which I had in

sharing personally. But this is not just about the steps we take in the

first few weeks, it's about a lasting commitment that we are

making to supporting the families affected long after the television

cameras have gone. So let me set out in detail but the -- steps we are

taking to support the victims and rehouse those who lost their homes.

On Friday morning the government established a central command centre

under the leadership of John Barrow Dale, the Chief Executive of the

City of London and former lead for London local government on

resilience and Elmer Kelly, Chief Executive of the London borough of

Southwark. I want to thank John and his team for all the work they do

and I want a picture due to the fantastic response from London

borough is including a number of chief executives Sue Barker curtly

working at the command centre as well as the Mayor of London and

leading figures from a number of councils outside London. I want to

thank the army of volunteers who stepped in to provide shelter,

sustenance, comfort and practical support. And I want to thank my

Community Secretary and the ministers for housing and planning,

the Minister for London and the Minister for policing and the Fire

Service for the work they've been doing. Mr Speaker there are

currently around 600 people working on the site and in the immediate

area who are working to provide support to defect is. The Westway

sports centre has been transformed into a community hub staffed by 40

officials from six Government departments, making sure people have

essential documents like driving licences and passports that are

fundamental to carrying on with their lives. They've also been

joined by experts from organisations such as Transport for London,

Citizens Advice and the Red Cross, NHS mental health staff, nurses, and

Ed GP, anyone affected by the blaze can walk in and access support they

need and so far there have been almost 700 visits to the centre. The

Centre on the ground work is supplemented by a victim support

unit whose emergency helpline provides a single point of contact

for that is the need to do with one double government services in the

wake of the disaster. Each family whose home was destroyed as received

and is receiving a 5000 down payment from the emergency fund so they can

buy food, clothes and other essentials and outreach workers are

seeking to make sure everyone gets money they are entitled to. We are

also paying all additional adults over 60 in these hassles by the

hundred pounds in cash, other cash payments are being paid out by the

Council on a discretionary basis, for example to those whose home has

been severely impacted but not permanently destroyed. As of midday

on Wednesday we had made payments of over ?700,000. It is absolutely

essential Mr Speaker that people understand they can keep the money

they receive. These grants are not loans and they will not expect to a

single penny. Neither are they waiving any legal rights as a result

of except this financial health. The payments will be disregarded for

means tested welfare benefits, payments, so no one in receipt of

benefits will see their benefits cut if they accept emergency support.

And I would like to reassure people that we will not use this tragic

incident as a reason to carry a greater checks on those involved or

on those providing vital information to identify victims or those

assisting with the criminal investigation. We will make sure all

victims respect of their immigration status will be able to access the

services they need including health care and accommodation. In terms of

local schools, Kensington Aldridge academy, the school next door to the

tower remains closed however all its pupils have been accommodated at

other schools in the area. The Department for Education is working

with the authorities to ensure children sitting their GCSEs receive

an appropriate exam dispensation and specialist counselling has been

offered to local school children and teachers affect that by the fire.

Turning to rehousing, 151 homes were destroyed in the fire, most in the

tower itself but also several in the immediate vicinity. All those who

have lost their homes have been offered emergency hotel

accommodation and all will be offered rehousing within three

weeks. Already 164 suitable properties have identified and they

are being checked and made ready for people to move into. In the longer

term everyone who sold was destroyed for the guaranteed a new home on the

same terms as the one they lost. 68 of those will be in a brand-new

low-rise block that has just been built by Arkley homes, the developer

has generously offered to turn over the entire block at cost price,

contractors are on site now working 24 - seven so that the first

families can move in the summer. But the wider cord and more are -- more

homes were damaged by smoke or water or have lost gas, heating or hot

water, emergency hotel accommodation is available for anyone who does not

want to remain in a damaged property and over 100 hotel rooms have

already been provided. We are also putting in place practical support

to help accelerate necessary repairs and yesterday drew on expertise from

the army to assist with this. Some survivors said they want to leave

the local area and we will of course support that and help them find a

home elsewhere. But I want to be absolutely clear, nobody is being

forced to move software they don't want to go. And if any honourable

member thinks they know of anyone being treated in this way, they

should contact my office in Downing Street with the details. Mr Speaker,

as the scale of the tragedy became clear we quickly decided there had

to be an independent public inquiry. As I said to the house yesterday it

will be chaired by a judge to get to the truth about what happened and

who was responsible. And to provide justice for the victims and their

families who suffered so terribly. All those with an interest including

survivors and fit is families will be consulted about the terms of

reference and we will pay for legal representation for those affected.

Listing two survivors last night it also became clear that they want

support to come together as a group to have their voices heard and the

government will play its part in helping them to do so. The stress

Speaker for too long residence at an overlooked and it bought, we will

ensure they are involved in every step of this process. No stone will

be left unturned in this inquiry and for any guilty party, there will be

no fur to hide. I'm also clear we cannot wait for ages to learn the

immediate lessons, and so I expect chair of the inquiry will want to

produce an interim report as early as possible. Mr Speaker and no many

others living in tall residential buildings will have concerns about

their safety after what happened at Grenfell Tower. All social landlords

have been in strut to carry out additional fire safety checks on

tower blocks and ensure the appropriate safety response measures

are in place of this is being done in crop and local Fire And Rescue

Services. We also taken steps to make private landlords aware and

made are checking facilities available to them for free. The

house should of course be careful and speculating what caused this

fire, but as a precaution, the government has arranged to test

cladding in all relevant tower blocks. Mr Speaker, shortly before I

came to the chamber I was informed that a number of these tests have

come back as combustible. The relevant local authorities and Fire

Services have been informed and as I speak, they aren't taking all

possible steps to insure buildings are safe and to inform affected

residents. Mr Speaker, we can test over 100

buildings a day and the results come within hours. I urge any landlord

who owns a building of this kind to send samples for testing as soon as

possible. Any results will be communicated immediately to local

authorities and Fire Services. Landlords have a legal obligation to

provide safe buildings and where they cannot do that we expect

automotive accommodation to be provided. We cannot and will not ask

people to live in unsafe homes. Mr Speaker, it is clear the Royal

Borough of Kensington and Josie were not able to start on the tragedy. --

cope with the tragedy, so we will also consider a new disaster task

force that can help in times of emergency. Finally, we must learn

some of the lessons of this and previous disasters where bereaved

families have not had the support they need, so we will introduce an

independent public advocate for public disasters, a strong, and

supporting them at inquests and enquiries. In the past week, a lot

of remarkable people have gone above and beyond to help deal with the

fire and its aftermath. First and foremost of course are the

incredible men and women of the emergency services who did so much

to serve so many lives. I can't imagine the kind of bravery it takes

to run into a building that is burning and head upstairs when any

normal person would head for the exits. We have also seen sterling

work from teachers, nurses, staff in various local authorities, civil

servants doing all they can to help. We have seen incredible acts of

generosity from private businesses and we have seen the people of this

great country stepping up to help in anyway they can, donating money,

clothes come the toys and food, volunteering their time and so much

more. But, above all, I want to pay tribute to the people of Kensington.

They have opened their hearts and homes to people affected by the

fire, coming together and showing what a real community looks like.

The selfless actions of local people and the courage and resilience of

the survivors should give us all pause for thought. For, right now,

our focus is on supporting the victims, finding homes for those

made homeless and making sure this country's housing stock is as safe

as possible. But as we move forwards, so we must also recognise

that for too long in this country and the governments of both colours

recently haven't given enough attention to social housing, and

this itself is actually a symptom of a more fundamental issue. Mr

Speaker, it shouldn't take a disaster of this kind for us to

remember that there are people in Britain today living lives that are

so far removed that many here in Westminster enjoy, that in this

tower just a few miles from the Houses of Parliament in the heart of

our great city can people live a fundamentally different life do not

feel the state works for them and are therefore mistrustful of it. So,

long after the TV cameras have gone and the world has moved on, let the

legacy of this awful tragedy be that we resolve never to forget these

people, and instead the gear our policies and thinking towards making

their lives better and bringing them into the political process. It is

our job as a government and I believe as a parliament to show that

we are listening and we will stand up for them, and that is what I am

determined we should do, and I commend the statement to the house.

The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Jeremy Corbyn. Thank you, Mr

Speaker, and I acknowledge the Prime Minister's apologies for the very

late arrival of her statement to my office and I understand the reasons

for it. I met with the survivors of Grenfell Tower, as have a number of

colleagues in the house, and very inspiring volunteers coordinating so

much of the relief effort for families that have lost so much.

There is grave, there is anger and the resource a great solidarity in

that community, and I hope the whole house will join with me in

commending community spirit and public support, which helped so many

traumatised families and the amazing response of so many local people and

faith groups who rushed to the scene to give clothing, to give food, to

give help and to provide a sort of online restaurants are just about

anybody who was helping with the disaster relief. Our love,

condolences and solidarity goes out to those families again today, and

in what will be the very difficult days and weeks ahead, and for many,

a lifetime will be reliving the trauma of that dreadful night. They

were, as the Prime Minister said yesterday, let down, both in the

immediate aftermath, and so cruelly beforehand, and the public enquiry

must establish the extent, and by whom. At least 79 people are dead.

It is both a tragedy and an outrage, because every single one of those

deaths could and should have been avoided. The Grenfell Tower

residents themselves have raised concerns about the lack of fire

safety in the block. The Grenfell action group had warned, and I

quote, it is a truly terrifying thought that the Grenfell action

group firmly believe that only a catastrophic event will expose the

ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the Kensington and Chelsea

tenant management organisation. The Prime Minister said it is right that

the CEO of Kensington and Chelsea council has now resigned. It may be,

but why aren't the political leaders of Kensington and Chelsea taking

responsibility as well for this whole dreadful event? Is the

speaker, from Hillsborough to the child sex abuse scandal the Grenfell

Tower, the pattern is consistent. Working class people's voices are

ignored, their concerns dismissed by those in power. The Grenfell Tower

residents and North Kensington community deserve answers, and

thousands and thousands of people living in tower blocks around the

country need very urgent reassurance. Our very brave

firefighters must never have to deal with such horrific incident again.

And the Prime Minister is right when she talks about the bravery of

firefighters running into a burning building. I have spoken to

firefighters on many occasions. But they are overstretched and they are

traumatised, traumatised by dealing with London Bridge, traumatised by

Grenfell Tower, yet they carry on doing it, overstretched and

understaffed. We need to look at the whole issue of the security of our

Fire Service. Those of us with over 30 years experience in this house

will have struggled as constituency MPs under the pressure generated by

an incident of this scale. As I said yesterday, my friend, my honourable

friend the member for Kensington, deserves praise for the tireless and

diligent way she has stood up for her constituents in the very short

time since she was thankfully elected to this house. Her

constituents need answers, and the public enquiry must address.

Firstly, the appalling failure of the fire alarms at Grenfell Tower,

which meant many residents reported they were only alerted to the fire

by the screams of their neighbours, or by young Muslim men banging on

the door who had broken from prayers in order to try to save lives.

Something went catastrophically wrong, which lost life. And whether

the advice given to tenants to stay in their homes was correct. And what

advice should be given to the people living in the 4000 other tower

blocks around this country in the event of similar disaster. Why

sprinklers were not installed, and whether they should now be

retrofitted into all tower blocks. We need urgent answers to that

question. And whether the cladding used was illegal, as the Chancellor

has suggested, and whether it should be banned entirely, and why the

changes must be urgently made the building regulations. As the Prime

Minister indicated in her statement, that this is obviously being

urgently addressed. But we also need to address the fire prevention

regulations, including the frequency and in force on fire safety checks,

because it is my suspicion that many local authorities, strapped for cash

after seven years of cuts, have cut back on fire testing, cut back on

inspections, because they simply haven't got the staff to do it any

more. And whether the tenant management organisations are

responsive enough to their tenants, and what greater powers tenants

need, both in council, social housing or the private sector, to

ensure their own safety. Whether survivors and people evacuated from

adjacent properties worth rehoused adequately. The Prime Minister has

addressed some of those. I would be interested in her response to those

who live nearby and were equally traumatised by the events, and of

course they should be rehoused within the borough and I hope there

will be no increase in their rent. The enquiry must also address the

resources available to the Fire and Rescue Service, and where the

response times in the past are adequate for all areas of the

country, since the number of awards in which response time targets are

not being met has increased tenfold since 2011. Lessons must be learned

in the public enquiry, and a disaster that should never have

happened must never happen again. The government must delay no longer,

and now implement the recommendations of the 2013 enquiry

report into the Lakmal house fire. The public enquiry into Grenfell

must also establish whether lives could have been saved if those

recommendations had been implemented in full, and if the recommendations

of the all-party Parliamentary group had been heeded by government. Fire

safety measures cannot be left to a postcode lottery. So I asked the

government to make available emergency funds as my honourable

friend the member for Leeds West raised yesterday, so that councils

can carry out immediate fire safety checks and install sprinklers, and

the timetable for that be made known to residents. There is obviously a

huge cost involved in removing Andrey cladding blocks that are

found to have flammable materials included in them. That money must be

made available immediately, because it is a huge job of work. And when

the Prime Minister says that those people who are in danger must be

moved out of their properties, this is a massive undertaking, and a huge

focus of government resources will have to go into it. Will the Prime

Minister also ensure that the counselling and mental health

services which you refer to as going on at the Westway sports centre now

are available to all the residents, both at Grenfell Tower, and of the

remaining areas around there, and those that witnessed it on the

Lancaster West estate, including those in the emergency services, who

have been through such trauma over the last few days? Because

counselling mental health services are important in the days and weeks

after the tragedy, but they have to go on for a very long time. This

trauma doesn't end a few days afterwards. Mr Speaker, the public

enquiry must report as soon as possible, and changes that can and

should have been made must now be made without delay. But we have to

be aware that this has been a wake-up call to the whole country.

The fire at Grenfell Tower has taken the lives of people who should be

with us and alive and happy today. Residents of tower blocks all over

the country are concerned, worried and frightened for their own safety.

What we need is a step change in our attitude towards housing in this

country, to deal with the permanent housing crisis that so many of our

constituents and residents face, and we need government intervention to

support local authorities in bringing about safe solutions to the

housing crisis, so that this tragedy can at least change our attitudes,

and that lycee, as a country, we are seriously going to address the

housing situation that many people face. Those people have died, they

will never come back. We have to learn those lessons to make sure

this tragedy is a turning point in our whole attitude, and never again

do people die needlessly in a towering Inferno, living in poverty,

surrounded by a sea of prosperity. Thank you, Mr Speaker. May I first

of all join the Leader of the Opposition in commending the work of

his new honourable friend, the member for Kensington. I am sure we

can all remember our first few days as a member of Parliament and

getting to grips with it. To having to deal with a disaster and tragedy

of this sort in your constituency so early on must have been very

difficult, but I commend the honourable lady for the work that

she has done. The right honourable gentleman raised a number of issues,

many of which will be matters for the enquiry to get to grips with, so

the responsibility in relation to this issue, some of the issues

around for example the advice given by the Fire Service, all of these

will be issues that the enquiry would I expect address, and as I

said in my statement, we want to ensure we are able to provide

justice to the victims and survivors of this terrible tragedy that has

taken place. And I do expect that the chair of the enquiry will

produce an interim report, so that we see early lessons. It is

important that as soon as we know there is anything that needs to be

learned and addressed and acted on, that we know that as soon as the one

we take action as soon as possible. He referred to a coroners report in

2013, all the advice from that inquiry has been acted upon and I

think it's important to recognise that coroner, the inquiry coroner

did not propose any change to the building regulations, there were

issues about the guidance to building regulations but there were

other issues raised and all of these have the acted on. On the question

of rehousing, we will be offering rehousing in the borough or in

neighbouring boroughs, we have, as I said, got a significant number of

properties, 164 already identified and currently being looked at. A

significant number of people have been assessed for housing needs,

some offered housing, it's up to them whether they accept that or

whether other properties will need to be offered to them but that

process is in hand and I have said that three-week commitment people

will be rehoused within three weeks. The tenant management organisation

which the leader of the Opposition mentioned is an issue that has come

across loud and clear to me from my conversations with local residents.

One of the first actions of the new Chief Executive of Kensington

Council will be to look at issues around the tenant manner rent

organisation and any action needs to be taken at a macro the tenant

management organisation. He referred to other instances, Hillsborough and

the child sexual abuse inquiry, I was pleased to be able to work with

families from Hillsborough, they should have had justice at a far

earlier stage but of course the issues are ongoing in terms of the

Crown Prosecution Service looking at any potential criminal

investigation, criminal charges but we have been able to provide the

Hillsborough families with an opportunity for the truth for them

to know the truth of what happened to their loved ones and for the

public to know the truth of Hillsborough. I was also pleased to

set up the child sexual abuse inquiry because as I said when I set

up that inquiry, for too long people made assumptions about certain

people in our society and how they should be treated and those

assumptions are wrong and we need to dig into that and find out why it

happened and change it. I am very keen to accommodate the level of

interest in this extraordinarily important and great subject. I

appeal to colleagues to help me to help them, a premium upon brevity, I

feel sure now it will be exemplified by Mr Iain Duncan Smith. May I

welcome the prime ministers statement and the actions she said

she will take the government will take under hearts and prayers go out

to those who suffered so terribly and continue to suffer in the days

that come. Can I ask are in the course of the public inquiry to add

to one further agreement, to look at whether or not this whole processes

of retrofitting these old tower blocks is in fact viable at all and

further or not there is a better way to both house and support tenants in

these areas without the use of many of these incredibly badly designed

and very faulty tower blocks and could she asked the public inquiry

to look carefully whether it's feasible for us now to look at

bringing some of these down and improving water family friendly

housing? Ungrateful to my right honourable friend for his remarks,

he is suggesting the inquiry should in fact go a great tool further than

looking into this particular instance. I think what's important

and we will ensure that the survivors and local residents have

an input to the terms of reference for this inquiry to make sure it is

an inquiry they can have confidence in and they know will produce the

results they need and the Justice they need. I think we need to

ensure, I will reflect on his comments but I think it's important

primarily that the local residents feel confidence in the terms of

reference and that it will get to the truth as they needed. Mr Iain

Latchford. Thank you, Mr Speaker I know we all welcome the opportunity

of this statement from the Prime Minister and I think we can all

reflect on the seems that we will go to last week, horror of those living

in the tower block, the suffering and pain they must have gone

through, the agony of the fire spread through that whole thing and

I want to thank the members of the emergency services, in this and

other incidents we have seen over the past few weeks, putting their

lives on the line, we owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude. We on

these benches want to work with the government on these matters, these,

this incident last week was a defining moment in the evolution of

our society, can I say to the Prime Minister respectfully, she has

apologised to the Leader of the Opposition for the short notice but

it should be to the third party and all parties represented in this

house that they should be adequate recession. The Prime Minister in her

statement said the initial period was compounded the facts support on

the ground and the Angel ours wasn't good enough, can I ask through the

inquiry if there are recommendations that are made that changes must be

made that the government will accept those? I think secondly, on the ?5

million given to the emergency fund if this is not sufficiently

government commit to doing what it needs to do in terms of financial

resources? I welcome the fact the prime ministers says the new housing

block built by the Department will be made available for some families

and she talks about families moving over the summer. Could she be more

specific when this will happen and can we make sure those families who

wish to live in the local area will have that commitment that housing

will be available and it will be done on a basis for consultation and

at the first offer is not acceptable there will be alternatives put in

place. Will the Prime Minister agree the public inquiry should be

empowered to consider all steps that were not taken leading up to and

contributing to the incident, all of those with a legitimate interest

must be able to participate, this has to include burrito families,

survivors as well as individuals and organisations with an interest such

as the residents campaign and local representative organisations. This

needs to be about Parliament recognising the significance of what

happened here, we can never be as a country in this position again and I

welcome the report is a Prime Minister made a bad social housing.

Let's make sure social housing is something we invest in, I grew up in

a social house, I remember fondly my childhood and I want people but have

the same opportunities we had to have social housing we can all be

proud of. Thank you Mr Speaker and perhaps I could take this

opportunity in responding to the honourable gentleman to make sure

the testing facilities I referred to are open to the devolved

administrations as well so I would encourage obviously within devolved

administrations, anyone who has any old things of this sort to send some

samples in so they can be tested. The honourable gentleman asked about

the ?5 million fund, more money will be made available if necessary,

something like 700,000 has already been paid out and further will be

paid out but we will be looking at that over time. As regards the

Berkeley homes development, planning conditions which were attached to

that development have been relaxed to enable work to take place over

longer hours so work can be speeded up, the current expectation is these

could be available by the end of July but I say that, with that

caveat, and I am sure he will recognise its dependent on the work

being completed. He asked about issues around the inquiry. It is

absolutely crucial that what the inquiry does is look at how this

happened and part of that will be looking at what led up to the fire,

the response to the fire, the immediate response and the

aftermath, we need to know why this happened and who was responsible for

it. But of course, the judge who will chair of the inquiry will have

a role in determining how that inquiry is handled in terms of the

witnesses he wishes to take and so forth but as I said, I am very clear

we need to ensure this is an inquiry e-book can have full confidence and

that's why I want to see residents being involved in setting the terms

of reference so they know it's an inquiry that will meet their needs.

Will the Prime Minister encourage local authorities to follow the lead

set by an council with an immediate reinspection of programmes of

investment and safety measures to be guided by the Fire Service and to

include sprinklers for these are needed? Can I commend and thank my

read on a bull friend for drawing that to our attention, I commend

Barnet Council for the action they have taken, I hope every local

authority, has been asked by DCLG to undertake these tests and ensure

they are ensuring the safety of the properties on which they are

accommodating people. Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the Prime Minister

for her kind words, words which must be followed by deeds. Speaking on

behalf of a traumatised and frightened community who have little

trust in authority, early reports suggest that there may have been

issues with fire safety audits and fire regulations were not

sufficiently robust. While we wait for the results of the inquiry which

I hope won't be too long will the Prime Minister commit to adequate

funds to enable emergency services and particularly the London Fire

Brigade to be fully funded to carry out this work and reverse the cuts

to the funding of Fire Services that have made their lives so difficult?

These people have quite literally our lives in their hands, in short,

where is the funding? The Prime Minister. When I spoke to the

emergency services, obviously my first visit to Kensington, one of

the challenges I gave to them was today have the resources they needed

to be able to do the job they are doing and they assured me that he

did. Obviously the question... The question of what the inquiry will

look into in relation to this matter, they will obviously have to

look at, as I've just said, at the question of how this was possible

but this could happen, the issue around, I am sure the inquiry will

look at the issue around tests that took place on the tower and the

adequacy of those tests and the adequacy of any response to those

issues. I want the inquiry to find these things out as soon as possible

because that could have indications for other local authorities and

other blogs around the country and we want to insure's people safety.

Perhaps I should be the first person publicly to congratulate the

honourable lady on her election to the house and on being albeit, in

the most grave and traumatic circumstances, the first newly

elected member to put a question in this chamber, she's done so to the

Prime Minister, I congratulate the Prime Minister of her contribution.

Zac Goldsmith. Thank you Mr Speaker, I want to thank the Prime Minister

for a statement and the reassurance she provided and to thank my own two

Buhriz for conducting urgent reviews and providing reassurance to

residents. There will be people in speech -- positions of authority who

will probably be fearing the indications of a proper public

inquiry and for the same reason there are likely to be people in the

community affected who fear their won't as a result be a full public

inquiry, that scepticism will be there for obvious reasons so I want

to ask the Prime Minister if she's a little bit more about the terms of

reference in the inquiry and explain how local residents will have

meaningful input into how they are set. I fully recognise the picture

that my honourable friend has set out in relation to the inquiry,

that's why I think it's important it is judge lead, the judge will be

completely independent, it will be up to them to determine the

witnesses called and how they will manage the inquiry and I think this

is very important because we want people to have the confidence of

knowing that offend the inquiry reports, it will be bringing the

troops out. We also want people to have the confidence to know that

actions that arise as the result of the indications, the findings of

that inquiry, will be taken and those who are responsible will be

held to account. In relation to the terms of reference, residents will

be involved. We are in the process at the moment of looking how it is

possible to do that, the judge leading the inquiry will themselves

want to reflect on how they want to speak with residents, to hear from

residents but I think the message I had from residents on being able to

bring a survivors group together as a single voice is a very important

one and would be helpful in this regard. Harriet Harmen. I thank the

Prime Minister for her statement, I think the news she has given the

house today that the cladding was indeed combustible and having been

tested it showed it was combustible is chilling news and will be

horrifying confirmation of what people, what we also on our TV

screens but it will be even more fright wing for those, I mean there

are 58 tower blocks in my constituency, thousands all around

the country. Can I suggest as Prime Minister and she gets a grip on this

personally, right away, and what she does is... I am just going to make a

suggestion, if I may, at what she'd is is use Cobra too call together

and require all local authorities within a certain time frame to check

the cladding on every one of the tower blocks. If she has done that,

and I look forward to hearing that and look forward to hearing the

timescale, so to call together all local authorities, to have a

requirement on them to check every cladding on every tower block, to

give them the resources to do that inspection within a certain

timescale, to commit the resources to replace the cladding within a

certain timescale for others find it is combustible, I think if that is

exactly what Cobra should do and it's not good enough to congratulate

or encourage other councils, she must take a grip on it personally,

she said... She said the previous coroners inquest findings had been

acted on but I would tell her they have not. The coroner in 2013 said

those deaths were avoidable, they should have been sprinklers, you

should have been change in the fire instructions, the should be greater

supervision of contracts and fire inspection, she said it was an

unimaginable tragedy and that those deaths should not have happened.

They would not have happened if the government had acted on the previous

coroners inquest rulings. Thank you. Prime Minister.

Can I said to the right honourable lady would I said in my statement,

that local authorities had been invited to send in samples of

cladding from similar buildings. They have done those and some of

those samples had been found to be combustible. There was in relation

to that testing that I use the term combustible. Because we had taken,

as the right honourable lady had suggested, we had taken the

precautionary measure immediately of asking all local authorities to go

out there, to identify blocks with similar cladding, and to take

measures, together with their local Fire And Rescue Services, to ensure

that people within those buildings were safe. Part of that process has

been about the testing, we stand ready to continue to test for all

local authorities who wish to send samples. The description of the

coroners report from Lakmal house, -- from lack and all house, the not

say there should be sprinklers in everyone of these properties -- from

Lakanal House. What underpinned that she was saying was the necessity of

people living in similar blocks are able to feel reassured about their

safety. We have taken these steps, local authorities have been working

with Fire And Rescue Services, we are now going back after the results

of these tests of cladding are being given back to local authorities,

they are immediately acting. There is a number of steps they are taking

and we expect them to be taken. Sir Richard Bacon. Mr Speaker, in recent

years London has seen many high-quality high-rises being built,

often financed with foreign money and then left empty for years,

sometimes with the kitchens cling filmed and pristine. While we all

understand there are occasions when a landlord will need to leave an

apartment empty from time to time, when brand-new properties are left

empty for years, does the Prime Minister think it is right to

discuss with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, changing the taxation

system so that as in New York City these people face punitive taxation.

My honourable friend raises an interesting point. I understand in

fact the number of empty homes is actually at low levels at the

moment, and of course we always look to see what we can do. All we want

to ensure is that people are housed and that properties are being used

for the purposes of which they have been built. While the rich and poor

of the voting regulations are fed from purpose, we should all be

protected from fire in our own homes. What assurances can be Prime

Minister give that the Lakanal house coroner's recommendations will be

done as quickly as possible and that the building regulatory advisory

committee, which is to read and has undertaken this work, the recall as

a matter of urgency. This could be done in tandem with the public

enquiry, doesn't have to wait until the end of it. The honourable

gentleman obviously with his background has particular interest

in these issues. The coroner's recommendations was not to changing

the regulations but the guidance that followed those regulations, and

that work is indeed in hand. My understanding is that fire

regulations have not been changed since 2006. Obviously a public

enquiry will want to look at this is one of the issues they address. The

amount of remedial work that may need to be carried out on a limited

timescale will possibly mean great pressures fall on the workforce that

is capable of carrying out this remedial work. Will the Prime

Minister in sure that her colleagues in government make all the necessary

funds and resources available if we need to recruit or train further

personnel to carry out the remedial work on those blocks that fail the

tests? My right honourable friend raises a very important point, we

need to ensure that the resources are there in every sense for the

remedial work that is necessary, and we are looking at a variety of ways

that we can ensure that is indeed the case. Mr David Lambie. All

members of this house, across this house, will have mental ward, it

employed and want to see flourish young people. My wife principally

and I mental ward, employed and encouraged a young woman called

Khadija Saye, who lost her life with her mother on the 20th floor of

Grenfell Tower. I spoke to her father on Tuesday, and he described

with anguish obviously losing his only daughter. And we had a

discussion about how he would cope in going to the more treat to visit

his daughter in the state that clearly she was in. On their behalf,

and all of the people that died, I urge the Prime Minister to say

something more about the criminal investigation that was announced

last week. She has talked about the public enquiry, but she understands

that most people see this as a crime, and they know that rich and

powerful organisations get away with crime. Can she say what resources

have been brought to bear for the Metropolitan Police, how big are the

teams, and why is it that we have not had any commentary about

charges, about arrests or about the seizure of documents? Can I first of

all say is how sorry I am to hear that the right honourable gentleman

has lost somebody, a friend, in this terrible tragedy? There are

obviously many people in that position but it brings it home to

this house and right into this chamber. He mentioned the issue of

treatment, if I could just mention that there is a family bereavement

centre now opened, which provides a suitable place in which people can

be counselled in relation to this matter. And there is a great deal of

thought and care being undertaken in relation to those families who will

obviously be wanting to see bodies of those who have died in the fire.

This is a very sensitive and difficult matter as I'm sure all

members of this house will recognise, and every action is being

taken to do this as sensitively and thoughtfully as possible, with the

consideration of those who have lost loved ones. In relation to the

criminal investigation, the criminal investigation has been opened by the

Metropolitan Police. The right honourable gentleman invites me to

comment on that in a whole variety of ways, as he knows this is an

operational matter for the Metropolitan Police Service the pit

is for them to determine any point at which they have evidence which

could lead to prosecutions or two charges or prosecutions, we must let

the Met do their job. They are doing it carefully and they are doing it

properly, but I can assure him and others that they will get to the

truth, and they will leave no stone unturned, and if there are charges

and prosecutions to be made, then they will be. I attended a group,

and understandably heated group discussion with residents of the

shadow of Grenfell Tower last evening who seem to be confused in

terms of retrofitting of sprinklers. The right honourable lady from

Camberwell and pack is also unclear on this. The coroner recommended we

should in courage housing providers to retrofit, despite the fact that

the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea didn't carry out this ?8.7

million refurbishment, they didn't retrofit sprinklers. Does the Prime

Minister agree that perhaps now is the time to provide incentives for

local authorities to retrofit when carrying out these kind of

refurbishments? My honourable friend has rightly identified the

recommendation the coroner made, which was that encouragement be

given the landlords to retrofit sprinklers. But I would just say the

members of this house that the situation is not as easy as perhaps

it would appear, in that in not all cases will it be the case that the

retrofitting of sprinklers is actually going to be the thing that

makes the difference. There is a whole variety of reasons why that

may be the case. Some work has been undertaken on testing retrofitting

of sprinklers into a number of tower blocks in different parts of the

country, because, as I say, it isn't just a question of going in and

assuming you will do it and it will automatically work and do the job

that is necessary. So it is an issue that is being looked at and

continues to be looked at, but it needs to be done so carefully to

ensure that any work that is done what is required is generally going

to operate in a way to keep people safe. Tom Brake. Mr Speaker, can I

express mine and my party's condolences to those affected by

this disaster and my praise for the community and emergency services who

stepped up in the immediate aftermath, when unfortunately the

local authorities failed to do so. Can the Prime Minister confirm when

the work on the guidance she referred to on building regs, fire

safety, will be completed? Can she confirmed that as much focus will be

put on private blocks, perhaps particularly those that were

converted from office blocks in the residential blocks, as is being put

on local authority and housing association blocks, and can she

confirmed that the government will immediately banned the use of

combustible materials to insure that this tragedy cannot happen again? On

the last point, obviously the building regulations set out the

materials that are compliant and those that are noncompliant.

Obviously as we go through this process of looking at materials that

have been used in various blocks, the question is to whether those

indeed comply with the building regulations or not will be one of

those that need stability that and of course that will be an issue that

will need to be looked at in relation to the public enquiry. The

questions in relation to the guidance of the building

regulations, that work is ongoing and I would expect it is not just a

question of producing something, but that is need to be consultation with

various organisations in relation to that matter. That what we need to

ensure is that when the Fire Services, when the police have done

their investigation, that any action that is necessary immediately as a

result of the identification of the cause of the fire, and the reasons

why the fire took such cold, which is of course the issue that is of

particular concern, then any action that is necessary is taken, and it

will be taken. Geoffrey Clifton Brown. My right honourable friend

might be interested to know I spent about three hours on Monday quietly

walking around the Grenfell Tower area, talking to people. I met

traumatised victims, who didn't want to go into the centre is to get

help, so clearly people need to go out to them. They were angry that

there was no clear housing policy as to when and where they were going to

be re-housed, but above all what I found was that there is an enormous

amount of work being done by voluntary bodies, all sorts of

bodies, but there is a clear lack of coordination as to how these bodies

are to move forward together. So can I strongly support what my right

honourable friend said this morning that we should establish a

high-level government task force that is able to go into a similar

sort of disaster, they should be available 24 hours a day, 300s are

the five days a year to take over from the immediate Gold Command

situation? Can I thank my honourable friend for the feedback he has

provided to ministers in relation to the conversations he had. He is

absolutely right, the point has been made to key workers that they need

to go out to see people to make sure people know what is available to

them, rather than just expecting people to come into the centre. I

can assure him that we are looking actively at what further resilience

we can put into the system by establishing the sort of task force

he and I have both spoken about that will be available, should, I mean,

none of us want to see a second chance like this happen again, but

that we ensure there is full resilience where disasters take

place. Hilary Benn. Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. While many of the

questions that those affected by the disaster will want answers to will

have to wait the outcome of the enquiry, there is one factual

question that surely it is possible to answer now. Was cladding of the

type used in Grenfell Tower compliant with the fire safety and

building regulations applicable at the time when the refurbishment was

undertaken, yes or no? My understanding is the Fire Service

and the building research establishment have obviously, and B

are either were there on the scene very early to look at this issue.

They have been identifying the cause of the fire and any contributory

factors to the fire. They have been looking at the cause of the fire and

any contributory factors, they are testing the cladding on the

building, and they expect to make the results of this public in the

next I think 48 hours. Anne-Marie Trevelyan. Thank you Mr

Speaker, can my honourable friend confirmed that firefighters who

attended this traumatic scene will get the psychological support they

receive in the time ahead and would she commit telling us how that will

be set up for them? My honourable friend has raised an important issue

which the leader of the Opposition also touched on and I can confirm

that support and counselling will be available and there will be further

up dates to the house on the response to the Grenfell Tower fire

and that will be an issue to be included. Yvette Cooper. Further to

the previous question the cladding on the tower is a standard rubber

that is available for sale, I don't understand why the Prime Minister

cannot tell us whether that product is compliant with building

regulations for eight tower that is the site. Why can she not tell us

the answer and can she also confirmed the building regulations

advisory committee that should be looking at part B of the fire

regulations, has not actually meant to see how they could be improved. I

will add to the answer that I gave to the right and noble gentleman

previously, I ask honourable members to remember that there is a criminal

investigation taking place in relation to this matter. The

testing, it isn't... The testing of the material used is being

undertaken and a statement will be made by the police and the Fire

Service within the next... James cleverly. Thank you Mr Speaker.

There are a number of multi agency plans for things like mass shelter,

mass... Can we confirm that these plans were fully implemented and can

we ensure what lessons we work through the inquiry process are fed

back into the resilience Forum in London and around the country to

insure those lessons are promptly implemented? I thank my honourable

friend for his question, obviously with his ex-errands when he was on

the London assembly, he took a particular interest in matters

relating to the London Fire Brigade and Fire Service matters. I can

indeed confirm we are, we have already looked at the question of

resilience forums around the country, we will learn any lessons

and feed them into the resilience teams but we also need to ensure the

resilience forums around the country are as resilient as they need to be

in terms of providing the support should any disaster happened. We

seen this issue in relation to other disasters like flooding, we need to

insure that they are operating as accurately as they should. Can the

Prime Minister please confirm when the judge will be appointed, also

with the comments made by my colleagues on this site, I'd be

grateful for your clarification as to whether you're advising us that

you don't know whether the cladding was building regulation compliant

because the question that been raised with the Prime Minister is

whether that to reel was compliant and argue advising that it needs to

be tested before you can give us a reply to that question? As I've

said, the material is being tested, the results of those tests will

be... The information that... The information that the fire and police

are able to give publicly, they will give, this is part of the criminal

investigation. In relation, it is... Honourable members... Honourable

members may shake their heads but can I just make this point?

Honourable members want to make sure there are criminal charges to be

brought those charges are indeed brought. And we must therefore

ensure that we give the police the opportunity to do the job that they

undertake and that nothing that we do prejudices that. I welcome the

Prime Minister's commitment to the publication of the early interim

report. After the Croydon tram crash last year the real accident

investigation board published two interim reports within three months

identifying the immediate cause of the tram crash, so action could be

taken. Could the Prime Minister assured this house is approach will

be taken in relation to this particular interim report. I thank

my honourable friend for that and it was important that report came out

quickly in relation to the Croydon inquiry and I can confirm that I

fully expect the judge to bring out an interim report but can I say to

the honourable lady, sorry, I didn't answer her first question about the

judge, I would expect within the next few days to be able to announce

the name of the judge. We very much want to ensure that when the judge

takes charge of this inquiry, that people feel as I said earlier, they

can have full confidence in the inquiry and so we will take steps to

ensure that is the case. Sympathies are not enough but on behalf of my

party I offer them to all who have suffered and I express my gratitude

to the emergency services officers show dedication and such

unimaginable conditions. Criminal investigations are only to be

expected but utilising individuals as partial retribution, those in

government should search for souls and for the Prime Minister commit to

ensure that in future policy legislation and resources, a

disaster of this magnitude can never happen again in a 21st first world

country? Can I first of all congratulate the honourable lady and

her appointment as leader of the Plaid Cymru members in this house

and can I assure we doing everything in this house and the inquiry will

play an important part in identifying action that needs to be

taken to insure a disaster like this can never happen again. Richard

tracks. Can my right honourable friend confirmed that the cladding

is found to be illegal, other research comes back but other towers

have been similarly clad that the public inquiry will extend its

remote to look at investigations into all towers that are similarly

clad with the legal cladding if indeed it is illegal? What I did say

to my honourable friend is that if illegal activity has taken place

then that is a matter of the police and will form part of the criminal

investigation by police will undertake. Of course the inquiry,

it's not just a question of what the inquiry does, it's a question of

what we are doing now in relation to other tower blocks, that's why we're

encouraging private landlords, and housing associations amongst others

to sending samples for testing. Angela Eagle. Thank you Mr Speaker.

As the leader of a party which is responsible for seven years of

austerity which has cut 56%, 56%, 56% of the cash available to my

local authority, but the last seven years, and the leader of the party

that has spent its time talking about regulation as a bad thing, is

she now to the country for the state of local government went the richest

in London cannot afford, couldn't cope with this emergency calls... At

the same time as they were giving money back to the council taxpayers.

I said to the honourable lady, we are dealing, currently dealing with

the aftermath of the terrible disaster that has led to people

losing their lives and others losing their homes and everything they

owned. We are ensuring we are putting the steps in place, I

recognise as I said, initially the response wasn't good enough, that's

fine we stepped up the response and I didn't respond to the right

honourable lady, the member for Camberwell and Peckham but I said in

my statement I have chairing Cobra meetings myself, that's why we've

been putting extra resource in to make sure that responses suitable.

This will be an issue of looking at the regulations, as I said my

understanding is that these were established in 2006. We will be

looking at the regulations, the inquiry will look at them, how they

were applied, the actions of the local authority, I am sure they will

look at issues raised about the residents complaints in advance of

this disaster about the tenant management organisation and they

will get the bottom of who was responsible. Order, order. As befits

the occasion these are a thoughtful and solemn exchanges but I must

advise the house that progress thus far has been very slow, I am keen to

try and accommodate the extent of the interest and therefore I appeal

to colleagues now to confine themselves to pithy, short single

sentence questions of which the honourable gentleman the member for

north-east Somerset is a notable exponent. Jacob Rees Mogg. Thank

you. At the end of her compassionate statement that prime ministers said

we have to think about people leading very different lives from

ourselves, as I'm sure she knows, opinion surveys going back over

decades people never said they wanted to live in tower blocks and

can we change public policy so tower blocks can become a thing of the

past? I'm grateful to my honourable friend for that question. There

aren't many people who don't wish to live in tower blocks, there are some

people who are perfectly comfortable living in tower blocks, what we have

to look at is the approach taken to social housing, I think that's one

of the lessons to come from this disaster. I don't want to be an

outbreak of sibling rivalry so Ibe but therefore call Maria Eagle.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. The Prime Minister confirmed in her statement

testing arrangements confirmed combustible cladding in some tower

blocks on other parts of the country. Given that people who were

living in those tower blocks are going to fear perhaps more than

others the consequences of that discovery what steps can she take to

make sure that the landlords and local authorities where these tower

blocks exist can swiftly, swiftly, deal with the consequences of that

discovery? That work is already being undertaken. As soon as we

identified, first of all, the testing work has been undertaken by

local authorities, housing associations, we encourage private

landlords to do it too, of their blogs, to ensure fire safety. We

encourage everyone to sending samples overly can check in labs,

local authorities were immediately informed if the material is