The government is “minded” to ban flammable cladding on high-rise buildings in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire, Theresa May has said.
The prime minister told MPs she intended to go further than the government-commissioned review authored by Dame Judith Hackitt, which did not recommend a ban.
One thing that is striking about the Grenfell victims is how many had come to Britain either seeking opportunity or safety: more than half of the adult victims fall into this category.
With Zainab Deen, we are not sure: her childhood was spent in war-torn Freetown in Sierra Leone, but we don’t know why her father brought her to the UK in the early 2000s: the worst excesses of the conflict were over by that point. And yet as her father Zainu Deen said, she always wanted to travel.
Ali Yawar Jafari meanwhile was one of two men who escaped Afghanistan in the 1990s only to die in Grenfell tower two decades later. We heard from the family of Mohamed ‘Saber’ Neda on Monday, and again here again we get the impression of a family patriarch, much loved, much missed, setting the tone and values for his children to live by.
We know he was originally a jeweller in Afghanistan, but struggled to learn English after moving here in 1999 at the age of 61. Instead, when he wasn’t helping out at his friend’s Afghan shop in Portobello market, he took to life as a grandfather, happy to get up early in the morning to play cars with his grandson.
Now are tributes to Ali Yawar Jafari, 82, who lived in flat 86. A video is introduced by his daughter Maria, who says: “We miss our father very much.” She says they cannot show any photographs because they were all destroyed in the fire.
In the video, his widow tells how they came from Afghanistan, describing him as “The love of my life.”
She says her husband loved animals and travelling, they went to Iran and Germany.
She tells a lovely story about how he insisted on catching a pigeon so he could untie string that its legs had become tangled in. He explained to his wife that the pigeon was a “prisoner” and he wanted to set it free.
Now is the tribute to Zainab’s two-year-old son Jeremiah Deen:
He was loved by all and was very overprotected by his mother who loved him very much...He was loving, full of life, liked playing football ...exploring and adventuring.
Most of all we are happy that you are with your mother Zainab who loved ...and adored you ...She will keep you safe now as she protected you in life ...Even death can’t separate you both. Our hearts break, we love and miss you Jeremiah. Sleep grandson, take your rest, love grandson.
The inquiry has resumed after a break and there will now commence tributes to Zainab Deen, 32 originally from Sierra Leone, and her two-year-old son Jeremiah, who were in flat 115.
The tribute is from Zainab’s father and Jeremiah’s grandfather Zainu Deen but is being read on his behalf by Michael Mansfield QC.
Zainu Deen is on the stage along with other members of the family
Meanwhile, the home secretary, Sajid Javid, has thanked the police for their handling of the Grenfell fire. In his keynote speech to the Police Federation conference in Birmingham, Javid said:
From physically taking on violent criminals, to breaking bad news to bereaved families.
You are there. From handling tragedies like Grenfell, to providing security and peace of mind at celebrations like the Royal Wedding. You are there.
Police Federation (@PFEW_HQ)“From physically taking on violent criminals, to breaking bad news to bereaved families.
May 23, 2018
You are there.
From handling tragedies like Grenfell, to providing security and peace of mind at celebrations like the Royal Wedding.
You are there”, @sajidjavid tells #polfed18 delegates
Tony Disson’s eulogy from his son Lee reads like a chapter from a bygone era: father and son outings to the football, camping trips, holidays at the chalet on the Isle of Sheppey.
His children from his second marriage reinforce the impression: this was a man who lived for his boys, loved watching them box, took great pride in their achievements, an old-style family man.
This is something we have heard repeatedly about the fathers of Grenfell tower. Hard working manual workers most of them, who did what they did to get their children everything they needed. As Tony’s son Charlie said, he wasn’t a rich man but he was generous with his love.
Safety tests called into question
The manufacturer of the combustible insulation on Grenfell Tower has announced it is urgently investigating whether samples which were used for safety tests had added fire retardant in them.
Celotex, which made the synthetic foam insulation fitted in the 2016 refurbishment, said it was “investigating this allegation via all avenues as a matter of urgency”.
Combustibility tests in laboratories are relied on by architects and builders to ensure buildings meet fire safety regulations. But on Monday night, BBC’s Panorama alleged that the company used a different formula of the product, with more fire retardant in it that that which was used on Grenfell, when they ran tests on it to generate a safety certificate.
Celotex declined to comment immediately after the programme was broadcast, but responded on Wednesday morning saying that “Prior to Panorama raising this, we were unaware of this allegation and had not identified anything which would support it.”
It has not denied the allegation and said that in tests since the Grenfell disaster which claimed 72 lives last June, it had not used any special formulation.
It said:
Celotex has not used any special formulation for the recent successful BS-8414 system test in May 2018 or Class 0 fire testing. It is very hard to understand the Panorama allegation alongside those tests.
BS8414 is a test in which the product is integrated into a full system with rainscreen panels and fixings and set alight. The Class 0 rating relates to a smaller scale test to assess the propensity of fire to spread across the product.
Matt Wrack, the general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, described the claim that a different formular was tested as “beyond shocking” and called for the police to investigate. He said:
We must look at how a lax regulatory system created an environment where the Grenfell Tower disaster was allowed to happen. As this investigation proves the current regime of regulation and testing of materials used in the construction industry has been shown to be a complete and utter failure.
Celotex said:
The current management of Celotex are absolutely determined to do the right thing. That means cooperating fully with the inquiry and other official investigations, and sharing with them all relevant material. We will continue to provide updates as appropriate. As the first anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire approaches, we continue to express our deepest sympathies to the families of all those who lost their lives in the fire and to everyone who was and remains affected by it.
Celotex said it is co-operating with the police investigation into the fire and the Grenfell Tower public inquiry which is likely to begin examining how materials were selected for the building no earlier than November.
A video tribute is shown featuring Cordelia Disson, Tony’s second wife, and their three children, Charlie, Alfie and Harriboy. Cordelia says:
Tony was a good dad, he was a brilliant husband and a wonderful grandad...Tony will always be my first love, he will always be my last love.
His sons recall how he would do everything for them and would train them all at the boxing club.
Cordelia says:
They loved doing it and he used to watch them love doing it because that was their passion ...Tony was so proud of them, you couldn’t get a prouder dad.
Charlie says:
He weren’t [sic] one of the richest people in the world but he was rich with love.
Applause follows the tributes with the chair Sir Martin Moore-Bick describing it as a “great, great” video which really gives a sense of the man.
There will now be a break until 11.45am.
Updated
We hear through Michael Mansfield about how Tony Disson bought his son a horse which escaped and then bought Lee a Shetland pony so as not to disappoint him.
Lee recalls that he was always doing things with his father. He also taught him how to fish, a hobby of Tony that he passed to his son.
In school holidays, there was always something my dad and I would do. To me, our life then, was perfect.
Tony Disson later divorced Lee’s mother and had three sons with his second wife, Cordelia Disson. He was very pleased to moved into his flat in Grenfell because it was in the area where he grew up, his son says.
Lee moved to Peterborough but came down to see his half-brothers box, Tony Disson was a coach at the Dale Youth Boxing Academy, which was at the foot of Grenfell Tower.
Michael Mansfield QC is reading a commemoration by Lee Disson about his father Tony (Anthony) Disson because Lee felt unable to read it himself.
Tony was born into a close knit family in Notting Hill. He met Lee’s mother in 1967, they began dating the following year and Lee was born in 1970. Tony was not permitted to be in the delivery room but was waiting at the hospital when Lee was born.
Lee was a member of Brunswick Boys Club and his father was a coach there.
I was with him [dad] wherever he went. I don’t remember ever missing an event that was taking place.
This included various sports and camping trips.
A fascinating and terribly moving insight into the love and solidarity within a large Egyptian family - and particularly the mutual support that the female members gave each other.Ruth Michaelson discovered very strong bonds between Rania Ibrahim and her siblings when she wrote for the Guardian about the Egyptian woman who died aged 31.
But we didn’t know that Rania was effectively raised by her oldest sister Sayeda - and that she returned that devotion by coming to London when Sayeda fell ill, and helped her sibling raise her four young children.
It is striking how tightly these two lives were interwoven, with their children closer than most cousins I know. And extraordinarily poignant that, as Sayeda says, she was present at Rania’s birth, at the moments Rania gave birth, and then at her funeral too.
