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The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) is calling on two of the Grenfell Inquiry’s fire safety experts to stand down.
On the second day of a procedural hearing for the inquiry this morning, barrister Martin Seaward, who is representing the FBU, said Steve McGuirk, who has been appointed to advise the inquiry on fire safety, is “conflicted” and has been at the “forefront of deregulation and cuts” to the fire service.
The FBU is calling on Mr McGuirk to stand down from the inquiry, as well as fellow expert appointee Joyce Redfearn.
Both were deputy lieutenants in Greater Manchester, which Mr Seaward said “emphasises and reflects the gap between them and the Grenfell Tower community and, indeed, the ordinary working people in the Fire Brigades Union”.
Mr Seaward said Mr McGuirk was the “principal” advisor when the Local Government Association (LGA) drew up its fire safety guidance and which has been “contentious from the outset”.
Mr Seward added that, “crucially”, the LGA’s guidance was not amended when the Lakanal House coroner set out her recommendations for fire safety improvements.
Mr Seaward said: “Significantly the FBU wants this inquiry to consider the effect, if any, of deregulation and closures and cuts on the emergency response of 14 June 2017 and that is part of investigating the big question: how could this happen in London? We contend that Mr McGuirk is inevitably conflicted in advising the team on that issue.”
Stephen Walsh QC, who is representing the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA), which runs the London Fire Brigade, questioned the practicality of splitting the inquiry into two phases. The first phase tackles what happened on the night of the fire and the second phase focuses on why it happened.
Mr Walsh said the LFEPA holds the “strong belief” that those bereaved by the fire and survivors of it “are entitled to gain an understanding of how and why the fire and rescue operation was conducted as it was as soon as reasonably practical”.
He said that if the questions over why the fire started and spread were “left hanging in the air” then they will be “debated in the public arena, possibly for several months pending phase two and the problem with that is that there is a real risk that public confidence in high-rise fire rescue operations will be unnecessarily affected, possibly through misunderstandings”.
Sir Martin Moore-Bick, the judge leading the inquiry, said he will produce a report on these initial procedural hearings next week.
The full inquiry will begin next year.
Inside Housing is calling for immediate action to implement the learning from the Lakanal House fire, and a commitment to act – without delay – on learning from the Grenfell Tower tragedy as it becomes available.
We will submit evidence from our research to the Grenfell public inquiry.
The inquiry should look at why opportunities to implement learning that could have prevented the fire were missed, in order to ensure similar opportunities are acted on in the future.