Grenfell Tower fire: David Lammy demands arrests over 'corporate manslaughter'

David Lammy
Nigel Howard
Chris Baynes16 June 2017

An MP whose friend is missing after the Grenfell Tower fire has demanded arrests over what he described as "corporate manslaughter".

David Lammy said the blaze that killed at least 17 people and seriously injured dozens more was "a crime of the most horrendous kind".

Artist Kadija Saye, a friend who the Labour MP for Tottenham said "had become a part of my family", was not been seen since Wednesday morning's inferno on the Ladbroke West estate in Notting Hill.

Mr Lammy, writing in the Guardian, said: "Don’t let them tell you it’s a tragedy. It’s not a tragedy, it’s a monstrous crime. Corporate manslaughter. They were warned by the residents that there was an obvious risk of catastrophe.

"If the preventable deaths of people burning in their homes are not a matter for the police then what is?

"If past disasters have taught us anything, it is that things change only when powerful people are put in the dock. So, for the sake of the victims, call it what it is: a crime of the most horrendous kind."

Prime Minister Theresa May has ordered a judge-led public inquiry into the disaster, which came after residents had repeatedly raised concerns about fire risk at the tower block.

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