Judging by the mood outside the gates of Downing Street on Saturday afternoon, Theresa May’s new advisers have their work cut out. The crowd of about 1,200 that assembled close to May’s official residence did not disguise their disquiet over her leadership, describing the prime minister using various unflattering terms, the most common being “cowardly”.
Their collective verdict over her handling of the Grenfell Tower tragedy was equally withering, with many saying that they felt May should resign after being being exposed as lacking empathy and humanity.
Artist Anastasia Tasou, 23, from West Hampstead, had travelled to Kensington to help the community on Wednesday morning as the full horror of the fire was unfolding, and felt that May’s subsequent response had been insulting to all those affected by the tragedy. “She’s lizard-like soulless. There’s no human element to her and although personality shouldn’t be everything when judging a politician, she has no empathy.”
Elsewhere among the boisterous crowd, Chloe Scott, 23, who lives in a council flat in Carshalton, south London, said May’s actions had exposed her scant regard for ordinary people. “She doesn’t care about us, she proved that by not meeting the victims. Where’s her empathy? If I died in a house fire in my flat she would say it was my fault.”
Explaining that leaflets articulating her flat’s fire regulations had landed through her letterbox on Thursday for the first time, Scott pleaded with May to resign. Nodding towards No 10, the counsellor for sexual violence survivors, said: “Or else she should come out, say sorry and talk to us like a proper person. There’s no point hiding in her little office sipping champagne.”
Conceived in the aftermath of the general election result, Saturday’s protest was originally billed as a show of dismay against May’s anticipated alliance with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party. The organisers, which included Guardian columnist Owen Jones, had urged protestors to unite and oppose what they described as a “Tory alliance with the homophobic, climate-change denier, anti-choice DUP”. But eight days is a long time in British politics during these tumultuous times.
Although disquiet simmers over May’s anticipated deal with the DUP, her approach over the Grenfell Tower fire had effectively hijacked the protest’s central message. According to many assembled on Whitehall, Grenfell had rendered her position untenable.
Retired security expert John Docherty, 72, described May’s behaviour over Grenfell as contemptible. “She’s an absolute coward, completely out of touch with the public. If she had any integrity she would resign at once.”
Such sentiments were shared among generations. Nine-year-old Grace Anderson was clutching a handmade sign etched with the slogan: “May Is So Last Month” and felt that her response to Grenfell had lacked kindness. “She doesn’t go and talk to people and I think she is a bit distant.” Her sister, Eva, 13, agreed, adding: “I don’t think she behaved like a human and I don’t think she thinks that people are equal.” Eva had made a placard featuring a ghoulish looking May and foreign secretary Boris Johnson complete with vampire teeth and the tagline: “Zombie Apocalypse.”
The boisterous crowd contained many teenagers, among them Susanna Bal, 16, from Berkshire who – waving a sign telling May to “fuck off”, said: “She only believes in power not people.”
For many, Grenfell was the last straw, compounding previous misgivings towards May. Politics student Steven Hollick, 39, denounced May’s decision to initially avoid meeting those affected by the fire as “quite disgusting.” He added: “The Queen could manage to meet the victims, so could Corbyn and her decision confirms she’s a coward. She has come across as a fake person who has nothing to say to normal people. She should not be in there,” he said, pointing towards Downing Street.
Even her attempts to defuse criticism of her handling of the tragedy by meeting met a handful of victims and community leaders inside No 10 on Saturday afternoon met with antipathy from those gathered yards away. “Too little too late. Her instincts were to ignore the victims,” said architect Dale Green, 27.
As the protest continued and the number of ‘Justice for Grenfell’ placards proliferated, masters student Lamis Harder, 29, criticised May’s Friday night appearance on Newsnight during which she drew renewed criticism for sidestepping questions over misreading the public mood. “She was completely insincere. She comes across as out of her depth, weak but she has never said sorry, preferring to release soundbites and statements.” Harder also felt the potentially imminent alliance with the DUP was an insult to most of the British electorate. “Of course she has the right to try and form a government but no one in England voted for the DUP.”
Hours earlier news had broke that another protest planned for Saturday outside Kensington town hall had been abruptly cancelled. It followed angry scenes on Friday night at the same venue when hundreds of protestors vented their anger over the government’s handling of the Grenfell Tower disaster.
