{"id":4460,"date":"2026-04-02T14:30:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T14:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/4460\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T14:30:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T14:30:29","slug":"reform-uk-housing-spokesperson-sacked-over-grenfell-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/4460\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform UK housing spokesperson sacked over Grenfell comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dudley\u2019s comment drew heavy criticism from Grenfell United<\/a>, a group representing survivors and bereaved families.<\/p>\n

According to reports, Farage told a press conference that Dudley was \u201cno longer a spokesman for the party\u201d and described the comments as \u201cdeeply inappropriate\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry found the fire, which killed 72 people in 2017, was preventable and could have been avoided.<\/p>\n

Grenfell Tower Inquiry chair Sir Martin Moore-Bick said people living in the tower were badly failed by central government, London Fire Brigade, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council and cladding manufacturers.<\/p>\n

Moore-Bick said the failures in \u201cmost cases through incompetence but some through dishonesty and greed\u201d.<\/p>\n

In response to Dudley\u2019s comments, a Grenfell United spokesperson said: \u201cAmongst others, Simon Dudley\u2019s comment \u2013 \u2018Sadly, you know, everyone dies in the end. It\u2019s just how you go, right?\u2019 \u2013 is not just insensitive, it is deeply dehumanising.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur loved ones did not simply \u2018die\u2019. 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.<\/p>\n

Read more: <\/p>\n

\u201cTo speak about Grenfell in this way is to erase responsibility. It suggests this was just fate, just \u2018how it goes\u2019, 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone deserves the right to a safe home. But this attitude clearly shows Simon Dudley is not the man to ensure that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Housing secretary Reed said Dudley\u2019s appointment showed a \u201cshameful failure of judgement\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cReform\u2019s first instinct was to defend him, not sack him, and they had to be dragged kicking and screaming into finally doing the right thing. Nigel Farage should apologise to the victims\u2019 families for putting Dudley in such a senior position in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Green Party\u2019s Berry said the \u201cdisgusting outburst\u201d showed Reform has \u201csunk to a new low\u201d.<\/p>\n

Issues with the Building Safety Regulator have proven to be a barrier to fixing unsafe homes and building new high-rise buildings.<\/p>\n

A House of Lords report<\/a>, published in December, found waits for the Building Safety Regulator to clear new buildings and safety works should take 12 weeks but have been taking up to nine months.<\/p>\n

Dudley responded to the controversy following his comments in a LinkedIn post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrenfell was an utter tragedy<\/a> and quite rightly prompted a wholesale review and tightening of fire regulations,\u201d the Reform UK housing spokesperson said. \u201cI said it was a tragedy in my interview with Inside Housing and in no shape or form am I belittling that disaster or the huge loss of life. It must never happen again. I reiterate that, and am sorry if it was not sufficiently clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that one of Britain\u2019s biggest housebuilders, Berkeley Group, has paused operations over costs and regulations concerns.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThese concerns are felt across the industry. The result? The UK\u2019s long running housing crisis is getting worse,\u201c Dudley wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo address the national housing crisis, we must ensure that regulation remains safe, sensible and proportionate. My concern is the introduction of numerous measures that do nothing to protect life and are throttling housebuilding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SimonSimon Dudley. Image: File photo<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time Dudley\u2019s comments have caused controversy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead council leader back in 2018 when the town hosted Prince Harry\u2019s wedding to Meghan Markle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dudley requested Thames Valley crime commissioner instructed officers to clear homeless people off the streets ahead of the celebrations.<\/p>\n

He had earlier said that \u201cthe whole situation presents a beautiful town in a sadly unfavourable light\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Dudley\u2019s comments even attracted criticism from then-prime minister Theresa May but he later apologised and said he was referring to anti-social behaviour and aggressive begging rather than homelessness.<\/p>\n

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this?\u00a0Get in touch and tell us more<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dudley\u2019s comment drew heavy criticism from Grenfell United, a group representing survivors and bereaved families. According to reports,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2593,2574,149,154,18,2594,5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-4460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-building-safety-crisis","9":"tag-grenfell","10":"tag-homelessness","11":"tag-housing","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-prince-harry","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116335596173967785","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}