Stephen Lawrence's mother has been accused of making a "disgraceful and unfair slur" after claiming that firefighters tackling the Grenfell Tower blaze were racist.

Doreen Lawrence, whose 18-year-old son was murdered by a gang of racists in south-east London in 1993, said she has "no doubt" the response to the inferno that killed 72 people was motivated by racism.

"Had that been a block full of white people, they’d have done everything to get them out as fast as possible and make sure that they did what they needed to do," she said, in an interview with Channel 4 News last week.

Her claims, strongly refuted by London Fire Brigade (LFB), were described as "misjudged and insulting" by the Police Federation's Chairman John Apter.

He wrote on Twitter: "A disgraceful and unfair slur on Firefighters who put their own lives on the line to save as many people as they could.