Grenfell Tower Memorial (Expenditure) Bill

Lord Sentamu Excerpts

2nd reading & Report stage & 3rd reading & Committee negatived
Tuesday 14th April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sentamu (CB)]

My Lords, any community that forgets its memory becomes senile. Remembering Grenfell Tower and those who died in the fire, which should have been preventable, will save us from becoming senile. The memorial will be a visible reminder, lest we forget.

At the first memorial service held at St Helen’s Church in North Kensington, I was invited to preach by Clarrie Mendy. I described the tower as a tall coffin in the air—a symbol of forgotten people, but people we will constantly remember.

Clarrie Mendy had lost two family members in the fire, and she became a powerful voice in the campaign for justice for those who were affected. She brought in a wide range of community and church leaders from across London. If you Google “Clarrie Mendy Grenfell”, there is a lot of information about the impact she had. Sadly, Clarrie died in 2020 of motor neurone disease, but her legacy is that of somebody who, in spite of loss, saw her work as galvanising everybody so that nobody forgets. May she and all the others rest in peace.

When I went to that service, I took bay leaves from Bishopthorpe Palace gardens for everyone present, and I focused on the leaves of the tree for the healing of the nation—words taken from the Book of Revelation, chapter 22. I am glad that we took a lot of bay leaves, because the church was heaving. Everybody was again determined to never forget what happened at Grenfell Tower. I played a lament on my djembe drum, which went on for some nine minutes. In the silence that followed, we had a community that was determined to make sure that we will not forget.

St Helen’s Church was nearest to Grenfell Tower, and its vicar, Steve Divall, and its people did a lot of work to help. I used to visit it regularly in order to ensure that what we committed ourselves to doing would happen. The Bishop of Kensington was Graham Tomlin, and he too did a lot to help people on the ground. My final words were, “No stone should be left unturned”, and I am very glad that the inquiry left no stone unturned. The Grenfell Tower commission has done an excellent job of making sure that we remember.

Let us remember Grenfell Tower and give the Bill before us a resounding yes, lest we forget. Our memory will become senile if we do not do what the commission is asking and what the Bill wants: to enable some financial provision, which needs to be done through an Act of Parliament. I wholeheartedly support the Bill. I wholeheartedly want to thank the Minister for the way she introduced it, and I thank the other two speakers before me, who also focused on the whole question of memory. Memory matters, and when we do not remember, we find ourselves in real, deep trouble. The physical memorial will remind anybody who passes by or who visits that place that some great tragedy happened, but out of it, we are determined to make sure that we remember, because without remembering we find ourselves sometimes drifting into oblivion or thinking that the present troubles are where we need to do all the hard work. We will remember.