Grenfell is ‘national scandal’ says Labour’s Rebecca-Long Bailey

A senior Labour figure has criticised the Government and labelled the handling of the Grenfell fire as a “national scandal.”

Speaking on Tonight Live with Nana Akua, the former shadow education secretary said there was “never really an urgent strategy set out by Government…people are struggling to access the funding that is required to carry out safety works.”

Accusing support efforts of being “littered with injustice”, Ms Long-Bailey said residents in buildings with combustible cladding should not be forced to pay towards rectifying a problem that was not their fault.

The key Labour figure said many homeowners not only feared bankruptcy but also had trouble sleeping at night “when they have to sleep in a flat that is not safe.”

Separately an inquiry has heard that Grenfell Tower’s landlords did not listen to workload complaints from caretakers who carried out health and safety checks on their buildings.

Paul Steadman, estate services assistant (ESA) for the Lancaster West Estate at the time of the Grenfell Tower fire, claimed he and colleagues were only allowed 30 to 60 minutes to carry out inspections by the now defunct Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (TMO).