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TUC 2018 Politicians should be held accountable for Grenfell Tower blaze, congress hears

CONGRESS called for politicians to be held to account today over the decisions that led to 72 people dying in the Grenfell Tower blaze last year.

Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack said it was chilling that Grenfell Tower's refurbishment had turned it into a death trap, with ventilation and safety systems not functioning and the cladding meaning the whole building was “effectively wrapped in petrol.”

“Grenfell Tower was safer in 1974 than in 2017. That raises some pretty fundamental questions,” he pointed out.

Unite's Maxine Loza, a bus driver from the Grenfell neighbourhood, said a colleague had "lost his home and his daughter" in the fire.

She called for the public inquiry to “be bolder” and “bring scrutiny to the deregulation of building standards.”

The atrocity was “not unlucky but the result of decisions taken by people in authority,” she said, backing Mr Wrack's call for politicians responsible to be “held to account.”

Composite 3 on Grenfell also called for an end to outsourcing health and safety and building control as well as a ban on combustible materials on the external walls of buildings.

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