"He is a white, upper-middle class man who I suspect has never, ever visited a tower block housing estate and certainly hasn't slept the night on the 20th floor of one," he said.

"I hope he would do that in the days ahead. The job is not just to be independent and judicious - I am sure he is eminently legally qualified, of course he is - it is also to be empathetic and walk with these people on this journey.

"To sit with them and understand that their lives were in the hands of the state and something badly, badly failed.

"It is a shame we couldn't find a woman to lead this inquiry or indeed an ethnic minority to lead the inquiry in 2017.

"I think the victims will also say to themselves: when push comes to shove, there are some powerful people here - contractors, sub-contractors, local authorities, governments - and they look like this judge. Whose side will he be on?

"He needs to get close to those victims and survivors very, very quickly and establish he is after the truth and he is fearless and independent and won't be swayed because he is part of the establishment."