It took a while, but parliament got there in the end. After listening to MP after MP express their outrage at the Grenfell Tower fire for the best part of 90 minutes in an emergency meeting, housing minister Alok Sharma finally caved in to the pressure. “I can promise that everyone will be rehoused in the local area,” he said. As this went a lot further than Theresa May’s somewhat half-hearted guarantee to rehouse everyone in London, it rather felt as if Sharma was making policy up on the hoof. If he was, then it wasn’t a second too late. A tragic day for London was partially redeemed by being a good one for democratic accountability.
Neither Nick Hurd, policing and fire minister, nor Sharma looked as if they quite knew what had hit them. And who could blame them? Both had been in office for little more than two days and must have expected a quiet few weeks getting familiar with their brief while the prime minister scrabbled around to find something credible to put in her Queen’s speech. Instead they found themselves in Westminster Hall, trying to explain a situation that they didn’t fully understand in a meeting for which they were completely unprepared.
“I’ll start by giving a brief update,” Hurd said. He sounded traumatised and limited himself to the simplest of soundbites. National tragedy. Heroism of the emergency services. Public inquiry. Cause of fire not determined. Careful not to jump to any conclusions. None of which were in any way controversial, but didn’t come close to addressing the anger and concerns of MPs in the room. Or those of the millions of people who weren’t in Westminster Hall.
Shadow housing minister John Healey pointed out that this wasn’t a natural disaster. It was the direct result of neglect, by either central or local government. No fire in a single block should have caused such devastation, and he wanted to know why the government still hadn’t got round to making the changes to fire regulations it had promised four years previously. Several Tories looked a bit anxious at this point, remembering that this had been Theresa May’s responsibility as home secretary.
David Lammy struggled to contain his emotions. Both through a sense of personal loss and rage. His leg twitched uncontrollably as he spoke of the friend who was still missing and his insistence that the fire was a moral as well as political issue hit home. “Those responsible must be charged with corporate manslaughter,” he said. “The state has a duty to support all those who have suffered losses. Not just now, when the cameras are looking, but into the future as well.” As it happened, the cameras weren’t looking as, for reasons no one could fully explain, the first half of the proceedings were not being broadcast.
It was Jeremy Corbyn who made the case for action most forcefully. These days he isn’t just looking like a prime minister in waiting – he had made the effort to meet victims of the fire rather than keeping them at arm’s length, as the prime minister had earlier in the day – he is beginning to sound like one. His own party sense it and so do the Tories. He is now being treated with a great deal more respect by both and his demands were taken with the seriousness they deserved. The victims had turned to him for help and he wasn’t going to let them down.
Sharma and Hurd both struggled to come up with an adequate response. There is a power vacuum at the top of their party where the Maybot used to be and they had no idea of what was and wasn’t on message. They were torn between their natural reactions as caring human beings and their duty to maintain a party line that was, as yet, unclear.
In their recent manifesto, the Tories had committed to cutting red tape. Now it was self-evident it was there for a reason. And there might not be enough of it. Sharma mumbled something about the review of the fire regulations being part of a wider review and that the government was almost ready to start a consultation. That didn’t go down well with anyone. Hurd just wanted everything to come to an end and made a bland noncommittal summary of proceedings.
“What about resources?” said Labour MP Clive Efford. “We need cash now,” others joined in.
At which point Sharma broke ranks and voted with his heart rather than his head. Too bad if he got a bollocking for making uncosted promises that hadn’t been signed off. Someone in the Tory party had to show some leadership, and it might as well be him.
