Jeremy Corbyn tells Theresa May people from diverse backgrounds must sit on Grenfell Fire inquiry panel

The Labour leader said the inquiry needed the confidence of residents

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (Reuters )

Jeremy Corbyn has urged Theresa May to “broaden” the Grenfell tower fire inquiry team in a move he says would give families “full confidence” in the process.

The Labour leader wrote to the Prime Minister on Monday urging the Prime Minister to include representation from “those from minority backgrounds” to support the judge who had been appointed to lead it.

He said that a move to “introduce a range of perspectives and experiences into the inquiry” would “help to both build trust and deliver justice”.

Such a change to the inquiry’s structure would draw on the structure used by the 1999 McPherson Inquiry, whose report recommended a major overhaul of the police, placing the service under more public control and addressing concerns about racism.

Some residents have warned that Sir Martin Moore-Bick, the retired Court of Appeal judge appointed by the PM to lead the probe into the causes of the fire, might not be suitable because his social background differs from that of the Grenfell residents.

Tottenham Labour MP David Lammy, one of whose friends died in the fire, said a “white, upper-middle class man” who had possibly “never” visited a tower block might not be able to “walk with these people on this journey” through the inquiry.

In his letter to the PM, Mr Corbyn said: “The importance of residents and victims’ families having full confidence in this inquiry cannot be underestimated.”

“I urge you to consider broadening the inquiry team to a model more similar to that used in the McPherson Inquiry, including with representation from those from minority backgrounds, in order to support the judge leading this inquiry.”

(Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn in the aftermath of the Grenfell Fire)

The Labour leader added that the inquiry should be two-part and also feature a more “wide ranging” section into the “underlying causes of what went wrong at Grenfell and the extent to which they are replicated on a national scale”.

The Government’s consultation on the terms of the fire inquiry reference ends today. Theresa May has said that "no stone will be left unturned in this inquiry".

Sir Martin has previously warned that the narrow focus of his inquiry might not be broad enough to satisfy all survivors and their families.

At least 80 people were killed in the tower block fire in north Kensington on 14 June of this year. Questions remain about flammable cladding installed on the tower, as well as the response by central and local government to the tragedy.