A Tory Kensington and Chelsea councillor has claimed protesters who stormed Kensington Town Hall days after the Grenfell Tower fire demanding justice for victims "weren't the local community" but "people who like doing that sort of thing".
Catherine Faulks was defending the council’s attempts to hold a cabinet meeting on the disaster on Thursday in private, initially citing public order concerns, and described press attempts to report on it by obtaining a High Court order as "a very clever stunt".
The council cancelled the meeting after journalists were allowed to attend, claiming it would "prejudice" the forthcoming public inquiry.
Ms Faulks told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The reason we had given primarily to have the meeting in private was that we were worried there was a public order issue which had been already demonstrated by the invasion that happened at the council - which, by the way, when you say we weren't affected, the whole council chamber had to be evacuated for the whole afternoon on the Friday after the tragedy."
She went on: "I think actually the people that stormed the council weren't the local community, I think they were people who like doing that sort of thing and I think they did a disservice to the local community.
"But I completely understand the anger, the frustration of the local community.
"Of course we weren't immediately quick off the ground, it's an enormous tragedy, I don't know if everyone realised how complex and how vast this fire was.
"I challenge any borough in the whole country to have immediately had an action plan they could put into place."