Grenfell Tower Memorial (Expenditure) Bill

Rosena Allin-Khan Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 16th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dr Rosena Allin-Khan (Tooting) (Lab)]

I associate myself with all the comments made by my hon. Friends the Members for Kensington and Bayswater (Joe Powell) and for Hammersmith and Chiswick (Andy Slaughter). It is an honour to follow them. This is not an issue on which there will be any contention at all between me and the Secretary of State, who I know cares deeply about this matter and who, like all of us in the House today, wants to see a swift and just resolution.

Today, we debate a Bill that touches on one of the deepest wounds in our national conscience. The fire at Grenfell Tower in June 2017 which claimed 72 lives was nothing short of tragic. They were men, women and children who today should still be with their families—those empty spaces at tables, memories that will never be made and lives that were taken too soon. Almost nine years later, the hurt and pain of that night remains raw. As my hon. Friends have said, the rest of the world has continued turning, but for many people they are merely existing, not living, due to the loss they experienced that night. What happened that evening in Grenfell was not simply a tragedy. It was a catastrophe that was, sadly, entirely avoidable, with lives taken too soon due to foreseen circumstances, failures of regulation, failures of safety and failures of responsibility.

To the families and survivors watching this debate, either here in the House or on television, I want to say clearly that we all stand with you. In the years since the fire, through their pain and their grief, they have fought for changes in the law, campaigned for accountability and demanded action. Anyone who has lived through grief knows that sometimes putting one foot in front of the other on the best of days is hard enough, let alone campaigning for justice to prevent this ever happening to anyone again. That fight is not over yet, but I want each of the family members to know that their work so far to ensure that this can never be allowed to happen again has unequivocally saved lives.

The Grenfell Tower inquiry laid bare the scale of systemic failures that led to the fire. Warnings were disregarded and residents’ concerns about fire safety fell on deaf ears. It is really important to underscore that the structural inequalities in Grenfell are stark. Of the residents who died in the fire, 85% were from ethnic minority backgrounds—85%. The area surrounding the tower is home to some of the most expensive homes in Britain, yet Grenfell Tower was neglected. Its residents were marginalised, ignored and treated as an afterthought. We cannot and must never allow those disparities to be ignored, because they sowed the seeds of this disaster.

The lessons of Grenfell must not simply be documented in reports and recommendations, only to be forgotten; they must be acted on. The words we utter today, the thoughts and feelings and the value of everything we have learned, and the people who we have held in our communities through all this over the past nine years, cannot be in vain. The families of the deceased have waited for too long as accountability has been kicked down the road. Those responsible for the decisions and failures must be held to account—they must. Justice delayed is painful, but justice denied would be absolutely unforgivable.

The Bill before us today is simply about remembrance, dignity and respect. Grenfell Tower should serve as a place where those who are lost are never, ever forgotten, but it is essential that the memorial reflects the wishes of those most affected: those who have lost loved ones, those who survived the fire, and the community who live in its shadow. They must be at the very heart of the decisions on the future of Grenfell.

If I may, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Denis Murphy, who lived on the 14th floor of Grenfell Tower and who has family in my constituency of Tooting. Denis was one of the 72 lives lost that evening in 2017. I remember speaking to his son and sister in the days after—the unimaginable pain they went through, listening to Denis on the phone as the fire spread. Denis was categorically true to himself, trying to calm his neighbours and children, even though he knew his final moments were imminent. I still remember afterwards how many parts of the system worked so well to support Denis’s family, but I also remember how the system added to their pain. The Department for Work and Pensions demanded benefit repayments from the family, and so quickly afterwards; they had not even held the funeral. Finally, I remember Denis’s funeral, packed to the rafters: an entire community grieving, but giving a great man an emotional yet beautiful send-off.

The pain that Denis’s family went through—the horrors of that night, replicated another 71 times—must absolutely never be forgotten. We cannot stop until, quite frankly, those responsible are jailed for their actions. We owe it to the families and to everyone who lost their lives that fateful night. Grenfell must remain a turning point for this country. A permanent memorial will stand as a reminder of the lives lost, but it must also stand as a reminder to learn the lessons of Grenfell and as a reminder of the demands for justice. The 72 people who lost their lives that night and their families deserve nothing less.