An apology was demanded of Jacob Rees Mogg tonight after “insensitive” comments about the Grenfell tower fire .
The Tory said in a discussion about the disaster that the “common sense” reaction would be to flee a fire.
It came as he and LBC radio host Nick Ferrari discussed the findings of a Grenfell inquiry report published last week.
Rees Mogg made reference to the fire brigade’s “stay put” policy which the inquiry found could have cost lives by telling residents to remain inside the building.
“The more one’s read over the weekend about the report and about the chances of people surviving, if you just ignore what you’re told and leave you are so much safer,” he said.
“And I think if either of us were in a fire, whatever the fire brigade said, we would leave the burning building. It just seems the common sense thing to do. And it is such a tragedy that that didn’t happen.”
Ahmed Chellat, 62, who lost five members of his family in the 2017 tragedy, which killed 72 people, demanded an apology.
He told the Mirror: “He has got to apologise. Who is going to challenge this man over saying this?
“What common sense is he talking about?
“People died on the stairs trying to leave, they couldn’t breathe.
“People needed help and directions, they tried to open doors and there was smoke everywhere. What is he (Rees Mogg) talking about?
“How is he coming to this insensitive conclusion?
“He talks about the cladding and the infrastructure – that’s fair comment.
“The firemen were not aware of how bad this fire was and what the building was made up of, the emergency callers weren’t aware, so people took instructions.
“This is the reality of it – he wasn’t there.”
(Image: UK PARLIAMENTARY RECORDING UNIT/HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/REX)
Yvette Williams, the chair of campaign group Justice4Grenfell, said: “This is an appalling statement to make but unsurprisingly symptomatic of Rees Mogg’s ilk.
“His government failed to implement the recommendations from the Lakanall house inquiry – leaving the fire service and local authority with ‘stay put’ advice as a national policy and no full evacuation procedure.
“Rees-Mogg has a privileged background, what is his experience of living in social housing? How many tower blocks has he lived in?
“It was his government who destroyed the fire and safety regulations, it was a local authority run by his political party that cost cut and ignored residents’ concerns resulting in the Grenfell atrocity.
“To suggest that those who followed ‘his’ party’s instructions were not using ‘common sense’ is an absolute insult.
Video Unavailable
“That he thinks that this issue is nothing to do with race or class, reveals all we need to know about the upper class, Etonian, Oxbridge ‘honourable member for the 18th Century’.
“He should be ashamed of himself.”
“He does not know anything about BAME and working class communities or their life experiences and this kind of statement is evidence of that.”
Ferrari asked Rees Mogg if suggestions the tragedy was in part caused by racism or “policies of class” were correct.
Rees Mogg, the Leader of the Commons, said: “I don’t think so.
“I think the tragedy came about because of the cladding, leading to the fire racing up the building, and then was compounded by the ‘Stay Put’ policy.
“And it seems to me that that is the tragedy of it.
(Image: Evening Standard / eyevine)
“The more one’s read over the weekend about the report and about the chances of people surviving, if you just ignore what you’re told and leave you are so much safer.
“And I think if either of us were in a fire, whatever the fire brigade said, we would leave the burning building. It just seems the common sense thing to do. And it is such a tragedy that that didn’t happen.
“But I don’t think it’s anything to do with race or class, and indeed I think it’s rather sad to raise these types of points over a great tragedy.
“Nobody was evil in relation to this great tragedy, but people made mistakes.
“And humanity makes mistakes and sometimes they have deeply tragic consequences. But it wasn’t done because people had chips on their shoulder or they were bad people, they just got something terribly, terribly wrong.”
