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Mehra resigns from Grenfell inquiry

GRENFELL justice campaigners have called for community relations experts to join the inquiry into the fire, after a panel member was forced to resign over her links to the firm that supplied the flats’ cladding.

Benita Mehra resigned on Saturday from phase two of the parliamentary inquiry into the June 2017 blaze which killed 72 people. 

Bereaved families had expressed concerns after it was revealed that, as head of the Women’s Engineering Society from 2015 to 2018, Ms Mehra had accepted a donation of £71,000 from the Arconic Foundation. The charity was a wing of Arconic, the firm which had built and supplied the combustible ACM cladding that was applied to Grenfell Tower.

Scores of survivors and bereaved relatives had threatened to boycott the inquiry.

A letter sent to the inquiry by 65 people who were directly affected by the fire urged her to recuse herself from the hearings.

One person said: “If [Ms Mehra] does not stand down or is not removed I will consider boycotting the inquiry.”

Trade union Unite, which is representing the 65 affected people, also warned that it would have “examined all measures” to force Ms Mehra’s resignation.

In her resignation letter to Boris Johnson, Ms Mehra said she had “hoped to draw on my experience and knowledge of the construction industry, of community engagement and of governance within housing management to contribute to the vital work of the inquiry.”

But she said that she recognised the “depth of feeling” from the families towards her appointment as part of her decision to step down.

The Grenfell United community group welcomed her resignation, saying that it would “lift growing anxiety” that the inquiry will be a stitch-up.

A statement from the group said: “The government should never have put families in this situation.

“They failed to carry out basic checks and understand the importance and sensitivities around a fair and proper process.”

The group also called for the inclusion of inquiry panellists that could “bring expertise on community relations into the inquiry” and said that phase two does not need “another technical expert.”

A government spokesperson said that it has accepted Ms Mehra’s decision to resign, but insisted that there has been no conflict of interest in her appointment.

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