Sir Keir Starmer has urged Nigel Farage to sack Reform UK’s housing spokesman over “shameful” comments about the Grenfell Tower fire, which a bereaved and survivor group branded “deeply dehumanising”.
Simon Dudley had said the deadly blaze was a “tragedy”, but that “everyone dies in the end”.
The former executive at Homes England and the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation said the pendulum had “swung too far the wrong way” on regulation after the inferno at the west London tower block in 2017.
The Prime Minister on Thursday wrote on X: “Shameful. Nigel Farage should do the decent thing and sack him.”
Shameful.
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) April 2, 2026
Nigel Farage should do the decent thing and sack him. https://t.co/592PuocFD6
Grenfell United, which represents many of the families bereaved by the fire as well as survivors, said the comments were “not just insensitive” but “deeply dehumanising”.
In a statement on Thursday, the group said: “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.”
Grenfell was an utter tragedy and quite rightly prompted a wholesale review and tightening of fire regulations. I said it was a tragedy in my interview with Inside Housing and in no shape or form am I belittling that disaster or the huge loss of life. It must never happen again.…
— Simon Dudley (@SimonDudleyUK) April 2, 2026
Following Sir Keir’s intervention, Mr Dudley said “in no shape or form am I belittling that disaster or the huge loss of life”, and apologised “if it was not sufficiently clear”.
In a post on X, the Reform figure said: “Grenfell was an utter tragedy and quite rightly prompted a wholesale review and tightening of fire regulations.
“I said it was a tragedy in my interview with Inside Housing and in no shape or form am I belittling that disaster or the huge loss of life. It must never happen again. I reiterate that, and am sorry if it was not sufficiently clear.”
He continued: “Within the last 24 hours, the Berkeley Group, one of Britain’s biggest housebuilders, has paused new land purchases and announced a hiring freeze. They blame ‘an unprecedented surge in costs and regulation’.
“These concerns are felt across the industry. The result? The UK’s long running housing crisis is getting worse.
“To address the national housing crisis, we must ensure that regulation remains safe, sensible and proportionate. My concern is the introduction of numerous measures that do nothing to protect life and are throttling housebuilding.”
Reform leader Mr Farage will likely face questions on his recent recruit when he holds a press conference on Thursday morning.
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry final report, published in September 2024, found that the 72 deaths were avoidable and had been preceded by “decades of failure” by governments and the building industry to act on the dangers of flammable materials on high-rise buildings.
It also found victims, the bereaved and survivors were “badly failed” through incompetence, dishonesty and greed.
The tower block was covered in combustible products because of the “systematic dishonesty” of firms which made and sold the cladding and insulation, inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick said in his final report.
Mr Dudley was appointed as housing spokesman for Reform last month and the party said at the time he would lead an urgent review into “Britain’s building crisis” that would set out reforms to planning, housing delivery and national infrastructure.
In an interview with Inside Housing published on Wednesday, he said building safety regulations introduced after the Grenfell Tower fire were an example of “regulation which is not working”.
Mr Dudley told the magazine the Grenfell fire was a “tragedy”, but said he did not believe the regulatory regime was proportionate.
He went on to say: “Sadly, you know, everyone dies in the end. It’s just how you go, right?”
The Building Safety Regulator, which was set up after the fire and is responsible for regulating the safe design, construction and occupation of higher-risk buildings, has faced criticism for delays in its approval processes.
In June last year, the Government announced reforms to tackle delays to building new high-rise homes, including a fast-track process and investment.
Mr Dudley added: “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?”
He argued that “You can’t stop tragic things happening. You can try to minimise excesses, but bad things do happen.”
The effect of poor regulation, he said, was that it stopped houses being built.
“So the pendulum has just swung too far the wrong way,” he said.
Housing Secretary Steve Reed said: “If Nigel Farage has an ounce of decency, he will sack his housing chief immediately.
“These disgraceful comments about those who died in the Grenfell Tower fire are beyond the pale and it is completely untenable for Simon Dudley to continue in his position.”
Green Party MP Sian Berry said: “Reform has sunk to a new low and shown a real disrespect to the victims of Grenfell.
“Anyone who has any awareness of what Grenfell residents went through, in fact anyone with any empathy or humanity, will find these comments truly abhorrent.
“Nigel Farage must sack Simon Dudley for this disgusting outburst.
“That Reform would want to scrap key safety regulations brought in after the horrific Grenfell fires tells you everything you need to know about the party.”
A Reform UK spokesman said: “Homes must, of course, be built safely.
“However, overly burdensome building safety regulations can stifle housebuilding, meaning targets are missed and the waiting list for homes grows longer at a time when we need more.
“Simon’s comments on Grenfell reflected his broader point that the regulatory pendulum has swung too far in response to the tragedy.
“As he explained, there is a fine balance between overregulation – which can slow the delivery of new homes – and ensuring that more homes are built safely without too much red tape.”
