Angela Rayner denies being ‘aggressive’ in Grenfell Tower demolition meeting

The deputy prime minister has denied being ‘aggressive’ during a meeting with the bereaved and survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire.

Angela Rayner has faced criticism after meeting with several bereaved families and survivors of the tower block fire in 2017.

The government has now confirmed the seriously damaged tower will be torn down over two years, after the eighth anniversary of the blaze which killed 72 people.

Some Grenfell survivor and bereaved groups have criticised a meeting held with Ms Rayner before the public announcement about the tower’s future, with some saying she was ‘aggressive’ and others saying she had ‘ignored’ their voices.

But speaking to Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg this morning, the deputy PM and housing secretary has defended her conduct.

She said she doesn’t feel she was aggressive during the meeting, saying: ‘If anyone felt that way, then I would be sincerely upset about that.’

Ms Rayner added: ‘I think what I tried to do is take a really difficult meeting, and explain to people…knowing full well that whatever I said in that room that night was going to be very traumatic for people, and people would be upset.

‘I felt, weighing up all of the different conversations that I had, and the engineering report, that actually the only way forward really was to sensitively make sure that we start taking the tower to ground level, but that we have a lasting memorial on that site.’

She also said that there is ‘no consensus’ amongst bereaved and survivors about what should happen to the tower.

The government’s most recent structural advice found ‘the building (or that part of it that was significantly damaged) should be carefully taken down’.

Kimia Zabihyan from Grenfell Next of Kin, which speaks for some bereaved families, described the meeting as ‘charged’, but said Ms Rayner appeared to be acting with the ‘best of intentions’, the BBC reports.

Grenfell United said nobody at the meeting supported the plan for demolition, saying ignoring the wishes of the bereaved is ‘disgraceful and unforgivable’.

They claimed Ms Rayner was ‘ignoring the voices of bereaved on the future of our loved one’s gravesite.’

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s final report, published in September, found the disaster was caused by ‘decades of failure’ by the government and the construction industry to act on the dangers of flammable materials on high-rise buildings.

The shell of the building has stood in place ever since the fire, covered with sheeting featuring a green heart and the words ‘forever in our hearts’.

Views on what should happen on the site are mixed, with some bereaved and survivors feeling the tower should remain in place until there are criminal prosecutions over the failings which led to the fire.

The near 10-year wait for justice has been described by families as ‘unbearable’.

The Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission has outlined plans for the site to become a ‘sacred space’, designed to be a ‘peaceful place for remembering and reflecting’.

The team of experts, community representatives and lawyers are searching for a specialist team to design the memorial.

While a design for the memorial has not been decided, the commission outlined various community suggestions for the permanent commemorations in 2022.

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