🚨 20 fire engines on the scene of a fire at New Providence Wharf in East London this morning.

The building’s still covered in ACM cladding - the same type as was on Grenfell. Awaiting updates. @LBC
Back in January the East London Advertiser wrote about the fight to remove the flammable cladding from this building - even though funding had been made available years ago. eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/housing/u…
Latest from @LondonFire.

Called at 8.55, 20 fire engines and around 125 firefighters are there. Parts of the 8th, 9th and 10th floors are alight.

The cause of the fire is not known at this stage.

Thankfully witnesses tell me it looks under control. Pic @IAmAndyPearce
Message from a resident: "No alarm went off for over 30 minutes post the fire. Woke up to the smell of smoke in the flat."

Do send me a DM if you live there/ are in the area.
Apparently, work to remove the cladding was due to start THIS week, and finish in March 2022.
LATEST: I've been told the fire started in a flat's fuse box, and one man is in hospital with burns - but thankfully he's expected to recover. @LBC
London Ambulance Service say they’ve treated “a number of people.” @LBC
Well while I’ve got you here, let’s talk about the Government’s own deadline to remove all of this cladding from all residential buildings. It was June 2020. It was very much missed google.co.uk/amp/s/m.huffin…
Thankfully, the New Providence Wharf fire is all out and under control. Looks like the flat where the fire started has been destroyed - windows and balcony doors blown out. Damage goes a few floors up. This could have been so much worse. @LBC
More about New Providence Wharf. @JSimpsonjourno wrote about this block two whole years ago
Statement from @MattWrack from the FBU, he says the “pace of removing flammable cladding has been glacial, and its putting people’s lives at risk.”
And a statement from @SadiqKhan - who says the “spectre of the tragedy at Grenfell still hangs over our city.”
We’ve also just had a statement through from @GrenfellUnited - they have warned from the start “another tragedy is waiting to happen.”
There’s a sense from witnesses here that the fire-spread really occurred up the wooden balconies (which now don’t meet regulations and also need replacing) rather than along the cladding. That doesn’t negate the ACM risk of course, but maybe explains why this wasn’t worse.
Latest from @LondonFire, Deputy Commissioner Richard Mills says:

- 35 residents evacuated, 22 using smoke hoods.
- 2 members of the public were hospitalised, and a firefighter was injured.
- Inquiry ongoing, they’re working with building owners to get residents home asap.

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More from @rachaelvenables

7 May
Laura Pidcock, former MP for North West Durham tells @LBC "the Labour party have got it wrong."

She blames the leadership for spending "a lot of time attacking the left. That's a dispute that needs to end. People are desperate for that representation."
Laura Pidcock also attacks Starmer and Angela Raynor for not being "relentless enough in taking on this hard-right Tory Government."

Says we need to return to the "magnificent manifesto of 2019."

*That being 2019, when Tories won a massive majority and she lost her seat... @LBC
Honestly, Labour's crisis couldn't be clearer this morning.

If you're on the left, it's all Starmer's fault, they need to return to Corbyn-politics. But for the moderates, it's 'long Corbyn' - they haven't rejected the left enough.

How on earth do you come back from that?
Read 4 tweets
9 Dec 20
The Grenfell Inquiry has just learnt that mere weeks after the June 2017 tragedy, Kingspan - who made some of the combustable insulation on the tower - hired a PR firm to lobby MPs on their behalf.
WATCH: These politicians are the sort of 'key decision makers' who Kingspan were trying to access. Looks like they wanted to convince MPs that ‘combustible materials are no more dangerous than non-combustible when properly installed’. #GrenfellInquiry
Here’s the reaction from the Fire Brigade’s Union
Read 6 tweets
3 Dec 20
Gavin Williamson won't say that Brexit helped us to get the vaccine first. Instead, he tells @LBC:

"I just reckon we've got the best people & medical regulators. Much better than the French/ Belgians/ Americans have. Because we're a much better country than every single one."
Full quote here:
This is the moment Gavin Williamson told @NickFerrariLBC the UK was the first to approve a vaccine because “we’re a much better country”
Read 4 tweets
2 Dec 20
HUGE: the Pfizer vaccine will be made available in the UK from next week, after the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved it for use here. Statement from the Dept of Heath here
This means the UK is the first country to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for use.

It has a 95% efficacy, and the UK has pre-ordered 40 million doses (enough for 20 million people).
Matt Hancock says there will be three locations for the vaccine rollout:

1. Hospitals, he says 50 hospitals are already 'set up and waiting to receive the vaccine'

2. Vaccination centres which are 'being setup now'

3. Community rollout - GPs and pharmacists.
Read 6 tweets
1 Dec 20
New: In a landmark ruling, the High Court says Children under 16 who wish to undergo gender reassignment can only consent to puberty blockers if they are able to 'understand the nature of the treatment.'
The challenge came from Keira Bell, a 23y/o woman who identified as trans as a teenager, took puberty blockers aged 16, before detransitioning. Lawyers argued children going through puberty are "not capable of properly understanding" the effects of such treatment.
Although Fenella Morris QC, representing the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, argued the use of hormone blockers is "a safe and reversible treatment with a well-established history."
Read 5 tweets
23 Nov 20
💉 the Oxford jab is far cheaper and easier to store than Pfizer and Moderna’s
💉 the UK has pre-ordered 100m doses
💉 the 90% success rate comes when people were given a ‘low’ dose, followed by a ‘high’ one - which should mean there’s more vaccine to go around.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock tells @LBC its “good news and a good day.”

Next the regulator needs to look at this data and “will only sign it off if it’s safe.”

Then “the NHS stands ready to deliver the Pfizer and Oxford vaccines from next month.”
Matt Hancock tells @LBC he should be in one of the first waves to get the coronavirus vaccine as “I count technically as a health worker, as the Health Secretary.”

He says he’s very happy to get the jab if the regulator finds it’s safe.
Read 11 tweets

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