RESIDENTS of Grenfell Tower who raised safety concerns before the blaze were bullied and their fears dismissed as unwarranted, the inquiry into the disaster heard today. 

Information about the lethal refurbishment was withheld from concerned residents because the owners of the west London tower block “did not like what their critics would do with it,” survivors’ lawyers told the inquiry. 

Danny Friedman QC, speaking for one group of the bereaved survivors, branded such action “unlawfully perverse and a blatant abuse of power.”

The lawyer said that those who did speak out — including 16th-floor resident Edward Daffarn, who raised persistent concerns about fire safety on his Grenfell Action Group blog — did so “at the price of being ridiculed, threatened and castigated.”

The inquiry heard how concerns raised by Mr Daffarn about a fire door that failed to close were not addressed. On the night of the fire in June 2017 the same door was still broken, which caused smoke to fill the floor on which two residents died. 

The inquiry began by looking at the role of the council and Kensington & Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (TMO), an arms-length body that ran Grenfell Tower and oversaw its refurbishment. 

Mr Freidman accused the TMO of continuing to criticise Mr Daffarn even after the blaze, saying it proved that the “amoral and non-functioning” organisation is still “more interested in its reputation than in keeping people safe.”

Mr Friedman added that the “neglect” of disabled and vulnerable residents made the fire “a landmark act of discrimination against disabled and vulnerable people.”

Stephanie Barwise QC said that there was no evidence that the TMO had assessed the needs of any vulnerable residents in Grenfell in the event of fire. 

“The lack of appropriate precautions is reflected in the deaths,” she said. “A quarter of the 67 child residents present on the night died, as did 41 per cent of the 37 vulnerable adult residents.”

She said a TMO spreadsheet at the time of the fire listed only 10 residents with disabilities when the real figure was 225. 

TMO representative James Ageros QC denied that the organisation had adopted a dismissive attitude towards residents or their concerns but acknowledged that relationships were “sometimes strained and difficult.”

James Maxwell-Scott QC, for the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea (RBKC), said that the council is “truly sorry for the suffering and tragic loss of life caused by the Grenfell Tower fire” and that it should have done more to stop it ever having taken place.