“All political parties have bad apples,” said Robert Jenrick, defending Nigel Farage over the sacking of Reform UK housing spokesman Simon Dudley following remarks about the Grenfell Tower fire.
Speaking to Sky News, the former housing secretary said no party is immune from individuals who “cross the line”, backing the decision to dismiss Dudley after he described the 72 deaths as a “tragedy and a failure” but added “everyone dies in the end” – comments condemned by survivors and bereaved families as “deeply dehumanising”.
Farage said the remarks were “frankly rather shocking”, confirming Dudley, a former head of Homes England, was “no longer a spokesman for the party”.
Grenfell United, which represents some of the survivors and bereaved, said in a statement: “Our loved ones did not simply ‘die.’ They were failed.
“They were trapped in their homes, in a building that should have been safe, in a fire that should never have happened. Reducing their deaths to an inevitability strips away the truth: this was preventable.
“To speak about Grenfell in this way is to erase responsibility. It suggests this was just fate, just ‘how it goes,’ rather than the result of years of ignored warnings, poor decisions, and a failure to value the lives of residents, and is deeply offensive and ill-informed.
“Everyone deserves the right to a safe home. But this attitude clearly shows Simon Dudley is not the man to ensure that happens.”
In an interview with industry magazine Inside Housing, published last Wednesday, Dudley said the building safety regulations introduced after the Grenfell fire were not working.
“That was a tragedy, it was a failure,” he said.
“Sadly, you know, everyone dies in the end. It’s just how you go, right?
“Extracting Grenfell from the statistics, actually people dying in house fires is rare. Many, many more people die on the roads driving cars – but we’re not making cars illegal, so why are we stopping houses being built?”
Dudley retweeted a post quoting his “everyone dies in the end” comments on Wednesday.
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