𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Nigel Farage has sacked Reform UK’s housing chief Simon Dudley, after Mr Dudley appeared to dismiss the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy by saying: “Everyone dies in the end”.

Asked at a press conference whether Mr Dudley would be sacked, Mr Farage replied: “That’s already happened”.

When he was asked to clarify what had happened, the Reform UK leader said: “He’s no longer a spokesman for the party”.

Mr Farage added: “He’s not a spokesman for the party – that has been dealt with”.

Mr Dudley, a former executive at Homes England and the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation, sparked outrage when he said the pendulum had “swung too far the wrong way” on regulation, following the inferno at the west London tower block in 2017. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer called the comments “shameful” and Mr Farage has now acted to remove his housing chief.

Grenfell United, which represents many of the families bereaved by the fire as well as survivors, said the comments were “not just insensitive” but “deeply dehumanising”.

In a statement on Thursday, the group said: “Our loved ones did not simply ‘die’. They were failed. They were trapped in their homes, in a building that should have been safe, in a fire that should never have happened.

“Reducing their deaths to an inevitability strips away the truth: this was preventable.

“To speak about Grenfell in this way is to erase responsibility.

“It suggests this was just fate, just ‘how it goes’, rather than the result of years of ignored warnings, poor decisions, and a failure to value the lives of residents, and is deeply offensive and ill informed.

“Everyone deserves the right to a safe home. But this attitude clearly shows Simon Dudley is not the man to ensure that happens.”

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry final report, published in September 2024, found that the 72 deaths were avoidable and had been preceded by “decades of failure” by governments and the building industry to act on the dangers of flammable materials on high-rise buildings.

It also found victims, the bereaved and survivors were “badly failed” through incompetence, dishonesty and greed.

The tower block was covered in combustible products because of the “systematic dishonesty” of firms which made and sold the cladding and insulation, inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick said in his final report.