Call To End 'Fatal Obsession With Deregulation' Following Grenfell Tower Tragedy

Call To End 'Fatal Obsession With Deregulation' Following Grenfell Tower Tragedy

The Government is being urged to end its "fatal obsession with deregulation" in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster.

Safety bodies were among more than 1,000 signatories to an open letter calling on Theresa May to rethink the drive to cut so-called red tape under the Conservatives.

A debate in the House of Lords, led by Labour peer Baroness Andrews, culminated in an agreement that safety industry representatives should meet ministers.

She told peers at Westminster: "This fatal obsession with deregulation in all forms across Whitehall has been pursued with no regards for consequences other than the benefits to business."

Meanwhile, the human cost of the tragedy continued to stack up, as two more of at least 80 people who are believed to have perished in the June 14 blaze were officially named.

The family of Yahya Hashim, 13, paid tribute to the "kind, polite, loving, generous, thankful and pure-hearted" boy who is believed to have died with his parents Nura Jamal and Hashim Kidir.

Relatives of 82-year-old grandfather Ali Jafari said he "was loved and will be greatly missed by his family and the wider community".

It also emerged that a young survivor of the Grenfell Tower fire was treated for cyanide poisoning, amid fears it may have been released by the burning of insulation or plastics during the fire.

BBC's Newsnight programme said King's College Hospital discharge papers showed that Luana Gomes, 12, was diagnosed with "smoke inhalation injury" and "cyanide poisoning".

As well as being combustible, the insulation in the Grenfell cladding released highly toxic gas and some victims were treated with the hydrogen cyanide antidote Cyanokit.

Around 255 survivors escaped Grenfell Tower which contained 129 flats, but London Mayor Sadiq Khan said not enough has been done to find new homes for Grenfell survivors.

Speaking at Mayor's Question Time on Thursday, he said the Prime Minister's three-week deadline for rehousing families passed without one of them having moved into permanent accommodation.

Two more NHS trusts in England and two schools were added to a growing list of buildings that have failed cladding fire safety checks as part of a safety operation launched in the aftermath of the deadly fire.

The National Fire Chiefs' Council said the fire risks posed by buildings with aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding, which is not of limited combustibility, can be reduced by other actions and further checks.

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