Grenfell Tower fire victims 'were murdered', says Labour's John McDonnell
Public sector cuts "contributed" to the deaths of the Grenfell Tower fire victims, the shadow chancellor says.
Monday 26 June 2017 09:14, UK
Labour's John McDonnell has said the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire "were murdered by political decisions".
The shadow chancellor claimed to a crowd at Glastonbury that public sector cuts "contributed to those deaths" at the west London tower block, which was engulfed by a huge fire earlier this month, killing at least 79 people.
Speaking during a debate at the Somerset festival's Left Field, organised by musician Billy Bragg, Mr McDonnell said: "Is democracy working? It didn't work if you were a family living on the 20th floor of Grenfell Tower.
"Those families, those individuals - 79 so far and there will be more - were murdered by political decisions that were taken over recent decades.
"The decision not to build homes, and to view housing as only for financial speculation rather than for meeting a basic human need, made by politicians over decades murdered those families.
"The decision to close fire stations and to cut 10,000 firefighters and then to freeze their pay for over a decade contributed to those deaths inevitably, and they were political decisions."
The comments threaten another political row, after Foreign Secretary .
Mr McDonnell also said he and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had been "beating our heads against a brick wall for 30 years" but were now on "the edge of a huge victory".
He told supporters to prepare for another general election "any day" and predicted Labour would secure a majority when voters return to the ballot box.
If the party wins power it will scrap the 2016 Trade Union Act and flood the House of Lords with 1,000 new peers to vote on the unelected chamber's future, Mr McDonnell vowed.
Mr McDonnell appeared at Glastonbury a day after Mr Corbyn spoke from the festival's main Pyramid Stage, marked by crowds chanting his name.
The pair are among a number of Labour politicians who attended this year's event, including deputy leader Tom Watson, former work and pensions secretary Yvette Cooper, and her husband, former shadow chancellor Ed Balls.
