Theresa May was criticised after the fire. RT said austerity was a factor

A Kremlin-controlled TV station seized on the Grenfell Tower fire to try to foment “class war” in Britain.

RT, formerly Russia Today, misreported that £10 million had been spent cladding the building to improve its appearance to wealthy neighbours.

Afshin Rattansi, one of the channel’s presenters, asked if “state-backed neglect, corruption and cuts to services had led to social cleansing at Grenfell”.

“No one really knows how many people have been killed by government austerity to bail out the bankrupt City of London since 2008 . . . but if anyone wanted an emblem for the slashing of emergency services, social housing and capitalist regulation, this week’s tragic and lethal inferno was it,” he added.

Rattansi introduced a guest he described as Lisa Mckenzie, research