Justice for Grenfell. My statement on the one year anniversary:
Today my thoughts and prayers go out to Khadija Saye, all those who lost their lives in Grenfell Tower and their families and loved ones who are grieving and coming to terms with what happened one year ago.
Today my thoughts and prayers go out to Khadija Saye, all those who lost their lives in Grenfell Tower and their families and loved ones who are grieving and coming to terms with what happened one year ago.
Khadija was a beautiful soul & visionary artist who was at the beginning of what would have been a wonderful career. Her life was tragically cut short and the loss of a young woman with so much talent and joy at the age of 24 is a tragic ordeal for her family & friends to endure.
Like so many others who did not make it out of Grenfell Tower Khadija was denied a future and the opportunity to pursue her hopes and dreams.
One year on from the Grenfell Tower we must reflect on the fact that the government has gravely failed the survivors. Every promise that the government has made has subsequently been broken.
When I stood at the foot of the smouldering tower last June, it did not strike me as remotely possible that so many people could be so badly let down, and that people who made it out of the tower that night would still be living in a bed and breakfast today.
The government should and must be judged on its handling of the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower tragedy over the course of the last year, and clearly they have failed miserably in their duty to the Grenfell survivors.
People who were failed by the state and burnt out of their homes have been failed by the state again and again. Survivors have had to contend with more than one can imagine whilst grieving for their loved ones and trying to rebuild their lives.
T he Prime Minister told them that they would be rehoused in three weeks after the tragedy. It has been 52 weeks and dozens of households are still waiting to be rehoused. I am appalled that survivors will be spending the one year anniversary of Grenfell in a cramped hotel room.
There is still no culpability for what happened at Grenfell, and we have heard very little about the criminal investigation to hold those responsible to account and bring them to justice.
Those responsible for this tragedy are still walking free, and justice will not be done on behalf of all those who died until those responsible are stood in the dock at the Old Bailey in front of a judge and jury facing charges of gross negligence manslaughter.
I had hoped that the disaster would be a watershed moment in our national life where we reflected upon the importance of social housing and reconsidered the role of the private sector and profiteering in the delivery of our public services.
Grenfell represented a breakdown in the social contract between the state and the individual. If anything positive could have come out of what happened last June, Grenfell would have sparked a renewed commitment to housing as a social good, not merely as a for-profit asset.
As regeneration becomes gentrification and mixed communities cease to exist, Grenfell could have served as a call to action to put the ‘social’ back into housing and a turning point to end the supremacy of the market in the provision of homes in this country.
This missed opportunity is a tragedy in and of itself.
One year on, the Government has failed to ban the flammable and combustible cladding that caused the largest death toll in a single incident in London since the Second World War.
One year on, the Government has failed to ban the flammable and combustible cladding that caused the largest death toll in a single incident in London since the Second World War.
One year on, the Government has failed to act to prevent another Grenfell Tower: after initially refusing to fund the refurbishment of tower blocks covered in combustible cladding that failed fire safety tests, thousands of people are still living in unsafe homes.
One year on the government must reflect on their failings and the fact that those who made it out of the tower alive have been let down again and again by broken promises. They remain ignored and had to fight to even to get representation on the inquiry conducted on their behalf.
This anniversary is a time to reflect on how little has changed in the last year and renew our commitment to fighting for justice on behalf of those who lost their lives, those who survived, and all those people whose lives were irreversibly changed last June.
Heartwarming displays of solidarity throughout London. Today, we stand together demanding justice for victims & their families. We demand that the Govt keep their promises, the state which has failed them commits to change & above all that the voices of the victims are heard. 
Those responsible still walk free, one year on. 12 months have gone by and there has been no ban on dangerous cladding. 52 weeks and many victims are in hotel rooms waiting to be rehoused. Still no justice, still no peace.
