Eric Pickles, the former housing secretary, is facing calls to quit as a Tory peer over the Grenfell inquiry, but he has blamed “middle-ranking officials” for failing to act on a coroner’s warning about fire safety.
Emma Dent Coad, who was Kensington MP when the fire killed 72 people, said Pickles should “have the grace to resign” from the House of Lords and as a government ethics adviser after criticism in the Grenfell report. Matt Wrack, the general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, also said Pickles should be stripped of his peerage.
