John McDonnell says Grenfell Tower victims were murdered

John McDonnell says Grenfell Tower victims were murdered



John McDonnell was rebuked by a shadow cabinet colleague today after claiming the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire were 'murdered by political decisions'.

The shadow chancellor made the extraordinary statement as he raged against Tory austerity during an appearance at Glastonbury.

But Mr McDonnell faced an angry backlash for his comments with criticism for trying to politicise the tragedy.

Shadow housing minister John Healey said he would not have used the word 'murder' as it was not yet clear exactly what was behind the blaze.

Mr Healey also cautioned politicians that it was 'easy to be wise in hindsight', and dismissed conspiracy theories that the authorities were trying to suppress the scale of the death toll.

At least 79 people are believed to have died as the blaze ripped through the north Kensington tower block within just a matter of minutes.

Hundreds have been left homeless as a result of the disaster, while the bodies of those killed may never be identified because of sheer intensity of the blaze, which left the tower block a charred, hollowed out shell.

Mr McDonnell told a crowd at the festival's Left Field: 'Is democracy working? It didn't work if you were a family living on the 20th floor of Grenfell Tower.



'Those families, those individuals - 79 so far and there will be more - were murdered by political decisions that were taken over recent decades.

'The decision not to build homes and to view housing as only for financial speculation rather than for meeting a basic human need made by politicians over decades murdered those families.

'The decision to close fire stations and to cut 10,000 firefighters and then to freeze their pay for over a decade contributed to those deaths inevitably and they were political decisions.'

The Labour frontbencher received huge cheers and applause from the crowd as he took part in a debate with Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley and economist Faiza Shaheen.

But Mr McDonnell’s comments were rejected by the London Fire Brigade, which said there were no problems with resources or staff levels when it battled the devastating blaze.

London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said that on the night of the Grenfell inferno ‘there were no issues about numbers of firefighters’.

In an interview with The Times, she added: ‘The number of fires has reduced significantly over the last ten years. I would not want any further cuts – I think we’ve demonstrated we need the fire engines we’ve got – but actually on a day-to-day basis we manage very well with the resources we have.’



Mr Healey told BBC Radio 4's Today programme Mr McDonnell was 'giving voice to the very real anger and disbelief that many people have'.

But he added:  'I wouldn't use the word murder. It is not yet possible to put a direct cause and effect. We do not know the details from Grenfell Tower.

 'But he is right that there is clearly a current political context within which government decisions are being made.

'The run down of social housing, the cut in capacity of councils and emergency services and also the resistance to any fresh regulation when it is needed.'

Asked about his own role as housing minister towards the end of Gordon Brown's time in power, Mr Healey said 'it is easy to be wise in hindsight'.

Mr McDonnell also tore into the House of Lords and raged against Tory austerity during the appearance.

He called for the House of Lords to be reformed, telling the audience: 'The House of Lords - 92 of them are there on the basis of who Charles II shagged at some point in the past.

'It can't be right that we have a House of Lords that's based upon those people appointed rather than elected.'

But without a hint of irony he defended Mr Corbyn for nominating human rights campaigner Shami Chakrabarti for a peerage.

If Labour win the next election, they will place 1,000 members in the House of Lords to vote on its future, he vowed.

A Labour Party government would also rip up the Trade Union Act of 2016 in just 10 days, he pledged.

Mr McDonnell told the audience that it had inspired him, Mr Corbyn and the Labour Party.

'We have been beating our heads against a brick wall for 30 years,' he said. 'We are on the edge of a huge victory.'

Mr McDonnell said Labour would not 'turn away' votes from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to defeat the Conservatives on austerity measures.

In the future, Labour could stand its own candidates in Northern Ireland, he added.

And he told activists to prepare for another election 'any day' and spoke of the 'solidarity that burns within us all'.

He also repeated his call for people to take to the streets to try to oust Mrs May and get a Labour government into No 10.

He said: 'Never underestimate the ability of the Tories to keep their grip on power by whatever means.