Stormzy's petition plea: MPs could debate Grenfell inquiry after 100,000 back calls for diverse panel

Stormzy has prompted a potential debate in Parliament after an emotional plea for signatures on a petition for a government rethink over the Grenfell Tower public inquiry.

The south London rapper’s call for signatures sent the petition’s numbers skyrocketing overnight to more than 100,000 from the 31,000 it had received beforehand as fans leapt to show support.

The online form reaching the milestone means that the call for an inquiry overhaul could be debated in the House of Commons.

It comes after the grime star used his performance at the Brit Awards this week to take aim at Prime Minister Theresa May’s handling of the aftermath of the west London tower block tragedy.

In his social media plea on Friday evening, the musician asked fans to support the petition launched by survivors which calls for a diverse panel to be appointed to the probe.

The petition urges Theresa May to appoint additional members with decision-making powers to the inquiry panel.

Stormzy wrote: “This needs 100,000 signatures if you could please sign, share, RT and spread the word on it,” before adding: “Yooooo please if you sign this we will hit the target by midnight DO NOT SCROLL PAST!!! Please just sign and help some real good innocent people! I’m appealing to everybody’s better nature right now, just sign and HELP!”

Once the petition hit the 100,000 target the Gang Signs and Prayer singer again took to Twitter to thank those who backed it, writing: “Beautiful, legendary people. Job done.”

Survivors and campaigners fear the inquiry’s team lacks first-hand experience of culturally complex areas such as North Kensington, which is where the tower block fire happened.

Any changes to the inquiry’s panel would risk stalling the progress of its current chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick, who is eager to publish an interim report into the causes of the blaze - which left 71 dead - later this year.

In December the Prime Minister defended the inquiry after Sandra Ruiz, Karim Mussilhy and a teenage girl, who all lost loved ones in the fire, joined former resident Nicholas Burton to deliver the document to Number 10.

The Prime Minister has powers under the Inquiries Act 2005 to opt for a panel-led inquiry, rather than relying on one chairman.

On Thursday Downing Street insisted Mrs May was "absolutely committed" to supporting those affected by the fire after Stormzy had delivered the politically-charged rap at Wednesday night's Brits ceremony where he asked: "Yo Theresa May, where's the money for Grenfell?"