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PMQs Next PM must ensure all high-rise towers have Grenfell-style cladding removed by 2020, Corbyn demands

JEREMY CORBYN challenged Theresa May today to guarantee that her successor will make sure all high-rise tower blocks would have Grenfell-style cladding removed by the end of the year.

He also urged her to strengthen council powers to impose big fines and “confiscate” privately owned tower blocks if the owners refuse to carry out safety work to remove the flammable materials.

The Labour leader pressed the government to guarantee, by the third anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire next year, that another similar tragedy will not happen. His remarks came during Prime Minister’s Questions.

He went on to criticise the government’s lack of action in response to the fire which killed 72 people.

Mr Corbyn also told MPs: “The legacy of this Tory government is 10,000 firefighter jobs cut since 2010 [and] 40 fire stations closed including 10 in London under the previous mayor [Boris Johnson].

“The Prime Minister claimed action on Grenfell will be part of her legacy but in two long years too little has changed.”

Mr Corbyn mentioned that he had met Grenfell survivors and campaigners on the second anniversary of the June 14 fire last Friday.

He said the continuing pain of the Grenfell survivors is “real, palpable,” he said, and “a big test for the next prime minister will be to make good the failings of this government over the past two years.

“A failure to rehouse all the survivors, a failure to give justice to the Grenfell community, a failure to make safe on other dangerous high-rise blocks, a failure to retrofit sprinklers and a failure to end austerity in the fire service.

“So does the Prime Minister believe that, by the time of the third anniversary next year, the government will be able to honestly say to the country with conviction to Grenfell survivors: ‘Never again’?”

Ms May said that all 201 Grenfell households have been offered temporary or permanent housing. She said she believed that 194 have accepted the offer and 184 have moved into new homes.

She said a public inquiry was established following the fire and a review of building regulations has taken place.

Ms May said: “I expect a future government to act on the results of the public inquiry.”

Earlier in the session Mr Corbyn said that he was backing the Never Again campaign launched by the Fire Brigades Union and the Daily Mirror.

The petition can be signed here: mstar.link/GrenfellPetition.

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