Grenfell fire: Arconic says its cladding made less heat than contents of flats

Stephen Hockman KC, lawyer for Arconic, accused other companies of blaming Arconic as ‘a very convenient way of avoiding their own responsibility’. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

Arconic, the company that made combustible cladding that spread the Grenfell Tower fire, has said more heat was released by the burning contents of victims’ flats, in a combative and unapologetic closing statement to the public inquiry.

In a final speech that sought to deflect responsibility for the 72 deaths, the company also said that if others involved in the 2014-16 refurbishment had properly read a safety certificate for its plastic-filled panels which said they were combustible very likely no one would have died and alleged his client had faced “an agenda throughout to subject them to condemnation”.