Nigel Farage has sacked his housing spokesperson after he made “deeply dehumanising” comments about the Grenfell Tower fire.
Simon Dudley, who was appointed the party’s housing policy chief earlier this year, said “everyone dies in the end”, and argued “the pendulum has swung too far” on building safety regulations in the wake of the Grenfell tragedy.
The Reform UK leader told a press conference on Thursday that the issue had “been dealt with”, after he faced calls from the prime minister to remove Mr Dudley from his position.
A group representing some survivors and bereaved also condemned the comments as “deeply dehumanising”, and called Mr Dudley’s words “deeply offensive and ill-informed”.
Asked at a press conference whether Mr Dudley would be sacked, Mr Farage replied: “That’s already happened.”
When he was asked to clarify what had happened, the Reform UK leader said: “He’s no longer a spokesman for the party.”
Mr Farage said Mr Dudley had been fired “about an hour” before Thursday morning’s press conference, after he said he had acted “in a pretty hurtful, insulting way to an awful lot of people”.
He said it was for Richard Tice, Reform UK’s deputy leader and business spokesperson, to make the announcement.
In an interview with Inside Housing, Mr Dudley said “fires happen” and argued that there is now “too much” regulation in the building industry.
After describing the fire as a “tragedy” and a “failure”, he said: “Sadly, you know, everyone dies in the end. It’s just how you go, right?”
He added: “Many, many more people die on the roads driving cars, but we’re not making cars illegal, so why are we stopping houses being built?”
The blaze killed 72 people and displaced many more after it tore through the 24-storey west London social housing block in June 2017.
The fire prompted national conversations about building safety regulation reforms, after a major inquiry into the blaze found the tower had been coated in flammable materials because of the “systematic dishonesty” of firms that made and sold the cladding and insulation.
But in another interview with Housing Today, Mr Dudley argued that, when it came to regulation reform, the “pendulum has swung too far”.
The comments were met with outrage, with the prime minister joining calls for Mr Farage to sack Mr Dudley.
Sir Keir wrote on X: “Shameful. Nigel Farage should do the decent thing and sack him.”
Grenfell United, a group which represents some bereaved and survivors, said his words are “not just insensitive” but also “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,” a statement on Thursday said.
“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.”
Homelessness charity Shelter also condemned the comments, calling them “shameful” and saying in a statement: “Let’s be clear, no one should have to live in a home that could kill them. Grenfell was the result of horrendous housing injustice that we must not tolerate. It is wrong to suggest we have to make a choice between safe homes or no homes.”
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan called the comments “sickeningly insensitive”.
“Not an ounce of decency, compassion or respect for the 72 lives lost and wider community,” he wrote on X. “But this isn’t a slip-up or a stumble. This is Reform showing us exactly who they are.”
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