The housing spokesperson for Reform has been sacked following comments he made about the Grenfell disaster.
Simon Dudley, a former executive at Homes England and the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation who joined Reform in February, said the deadly blaze was a “tragedy” but that “everyone dies in the end”.
He gave an interview to Inside Housing magazine in which he described building safety regulations introduced after the 2017 Grenfell tragedy as “regulation which is not working”.
A group representing the bereaved of Grenfell have called Dudley’s comments “ignorant and callous”.
Reform leader Nigel Farage has confirmed that Dudley was “no longer a spokesman for the party” at press conference.
He added in response to a question by the BBC’s Iain Watson: “I haven’t spoken to him, he’s under Richard Tice’s department, Richard appointed him housing spokesman given his depth of experience in developing new towns.
“But the comments were deeply inappropriate, they were frankly rather shocking to many people, and Richard has dealt with it.”
It comes after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer urged Nigel Farage to sack him, posting on X to say he should “do the decent thing”.
‘Not very emotionally intelligent’
Kimia Zabihyan from the Grenfell Next of Kin group said: “His comments are nothing but ignorant and misinformed.
“Building regulations are not what is slowing down development.
“They have lots of cladding regulation across Europe, in France and Germany, that has been proven to save lives.
“Similarly, in Italy and Spain where they have less regulation, they have seen incidents happen such as the Grenfell one.
“It’s rather reductive thing to say, as well as being callous and not very emotionally intelligent.
“The death of our parents, partners, children, siblings grandparents and grandchildren in the most horrific circumstances was gross negligent manslaughter, not fate.”
The group advocates for the next of kin and immediate families of the deceased.