UK Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has recently defended her meeting last week with the families of victims and survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire. Previously, some attendees described the meeting as "a disaster." The meeting mainly discussed the demolition of Grenfell Tower, which claimed the lives of 72 people in a 2017 fire.
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02-11, 2025Rayner stated at the meeting on Wednesday that the 24-story building would be gradually demolished. This decision has sparked different reactions among those affected by the tragedy, after years of discussions about the tower's future. In an interview with the BBC, Rayner said she did not think she came across as "aggressive" at the meeting, adding: "If anyone felt that, I am incredibly sorry."
Kimia Zabihyan of Grenfell Next of Kin, which represents some of the victims' families, described the meeting atmosphere as "tense" but said Rayner seemed to attend with "the best of intentions." However, Grenfell United, which also represents some of the victims' families and survivors, said no one at the meeting supported the plan, calling the disregard for their wishes "shameful and unforgivable."
Rayner said: "I think what I was trying to do was manage a very difficult meeting and explain to people... I fully appreciate that anything I said in that room on that night was going to be incredibly traumatic for people, people were going to be upset." The decision to demolish the building was officially announced on Friday, after engineers advised that the tower was severely damaged. The government stated that experts advised that the building's condition would "continue to deteriorate over time" and was only being kept stable due to additional protective measures that had been taken.
Engineers also stated that "retaining large sections of the building in situ" as a permanent memorial was "not feasible." Some people want the tower, located in west London, to remain as a permanent memorial to the tragedy, while others have called for its complete demolition. Rayner has also been accused by some of failing to consult sufficiently with survivors, and she said that there was "no consensus" on the future of the building, but she had attended multiple meetings with different families and community groups.
Rayner said on the program: "I weighed up all the different conversations that I've had and the engineering reports, and actually, the only real way forward is to sensitively make sure that we start to take the tower down to the ground, but that we build a lasting memorial on that site." She said she was determined to work with the families to develop a "lasting memorial" to "do justice to that sacred place."
The 2017 fire killed 72 people and was initially caused by a faulty refrigerator in a fourth-floor apartment, but the fire quickly spread throughout the block due to highly flammable cladding. A public inquiry concluded in September that the disaster was the result of numerous failures by the government and the construction industry. The Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission has been consulting on plans for a memorial on the tower site. Five design teams have been shortlisted to create the memorial, with the winner scheduled to submit a planning application in late 2026.
