Reform UK housing spokesperson sacked over 'deeply dehumanising' Grenfell comments

Nigel Farage has sacked Reform UK housing spokesperson Simon Dudley over comments about the Grenfell Tower fire that survivors and family members have branded as “deeply offensive”.

Dudley told Inside Housing that post-Grenfell building regulations had hampered housebuilding and attempts to address the housing crisis.

But his comments on the disaster itself caused uproar, with housing secretary Steve Reed and Green MP Sian Berry among those who urged Farage to axe Dudley, a former head of Homes England who joined Reform in February. 

“People may feel that we’ve done the right thing through introducing this regulation, but on the other side of that, think about all the human suffering of not having a home, not being able to have children, and being stuck in your parents’ home in your childhood bedroom. So there is a balance,” said Dudley.

“You know… sadly… everyone dies in the end. It’s just how you go, right?”

He also said: “You can’t stop tragic things from happening. Fires do happen.”

Dudley’s comment drew heavy criticism from Grenfell United, a group representing survivors and bereaved families.

According to reports, Farage told a press conference that Dudley was “no longer a spokesman for the party” and described the comments as “deeply inappropriate”.

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry found the fire, which killed 72 people in 2017, was preventable and could have been avoided.

Grenfell Tower Inquiry chair Sir Martin Moore-Bick said people living in the tower were badly failed by central government, London Fire Brigade, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council and cladding manufacturers.

Moore-Bick said the failures in “most cases through incompetence but some through dishonesty and greed”.

In response to Dudley’s comments, a Grenfell United spokesperson said: “Amongst others, Simon Dudley’s comment – ‘Sadly, you know, everyone dies in the end. It’s just how you go, right?’ – is not just insensitive, it is deeply dehumanising.

“Our loved ones did not simply ‘die’. They were failed. They were trapped in their homes, in a building that should have been safe, in a fire that should never have happened. Reducing their deaths to an inevitability strips away the truth: this was preventable.

Read more:

• Bereaved Grenfell families still waiting for justice after ‘joke’ inquiry they ‘never asked for’
• Grenfell inquiry can be a watershed moment for social housing – if we want it to be
• Grenfell survivor Antonio Roncolato is still fighting for ‘truth and justice’

“To speak about Grenfell in this way is to erase responsibility. It suggests this was just fate, just ‘how it goes’, rather than the result of years of ignored warnings, poor decisions, and a failure to value the lives of residents, and is deeply offensive and ill informed.

“Everyone deserves the right to a safe home. But this attitude clearly shows Simon Dudley is not the man to ensure that happens.”

Housing secretary Reed said Dudley’s appointment showed a “shameful failure of judgement”.

He added: “Reform’s first instinct was to defend him, not sack him, and they had to be dragged kicking and screaming into finally doing the right thing. Nigel Farage should apologise to the victims’ families for putting Dudley in such a senior position in the first place.”

The Green Party’s Berry said the “disgusting outburst” showed Reform has “sunk to a new low”.

Issues with the Building Safety Regulator have proven to be a barrier to fixing unsafe homes and building new high-rise buildings.

A House of Lords report, published in December, found waits for the Building Safety Regulator to clear new buildings and safety works should take 12 weeks but have been taking up to nine months.

Dudley responded to the controversy following his comments in a LinkedIn post.

“Grenfell was an utter tragedy and quite rightly prompted a wholesale review and tightening of fire regulations,” the Reform UK housing spokesperson said. “I said it was a tragedy in my interview with Inside Housing and in no shape or form am I belittling that disaster or the huge loss of life. It must never happen again. I reiterate that, and am sorry if it was not sufficiently clear.”

He added that one of Britain’s biggest housebuilders, Berkeley Group, has paused operations over costs and regulations concerns.

“These concerns are felt across the industry. The result? The UK’s long running housing crisis is getting worse,“ Dudley wrote.

“To address the national housing crisis, we must ensure that regulation remains safe, sensible and proportionate. My concern is the introduction of numerous measures that do nothing to protect life and are throttling housebuilding.”

It’s not the first time Dudley’s comments have caused controversy. 

He was Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead council leader back in 2018 when the town hosted Prince Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle.

Dudley requested Thames Valley crime commissioner instructed officers to clear homeless people off the streets ahead of the celebrations.

He had earlier said that “the whole situation presents a beautiful town in a sadly unfavourable light”.

Dudley’s comments even attracted criticism from then-prime minister Theresa May but he later apologised and said he was referring to anti-social behaviour and aggressive begging rather than homelessness.

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