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Grenfell Tower's local MP has given a spine-tingling first House of Commons speech exposing the shame of poverty in Britain.

Emma Dent Coad told how she'd seen toxic black mould and five children squeezed into one room in one of the richest boroughs in the country.

She became Labour's first MP in Kensington just two weeks ago after ousting the Tories by 20 votes.

But she was thrust into the spotlight by the deaths of 79 people in the London block - symbolising the inequality in her seat.

"The horror and fear of this man-made catastrophe will be etched on all our hears forever," she said.

"The burnt carcass of Grenfell Tower speaks for itself and has revealed the true face of Kensington.

"The mask has dropped. We have poverty, malnutrition, overcrowding, poor maintenance - and underlining this, a lack of care."

(Image: BBC Parliament)

Ms Dent Coad said Grenfell's residents had even complained about "power surges that blew all the electrical devices."

"Yet the residents' protestations were ignored - and so-called 'frequent complainers' were blacklisted," she said.

"By what process of deregulation and the bonfire of red tape was this disaster allowed to happen?"

The Chelsea-born MP represents both Harrods and Notting Hill Carnival in one of London's wealthiest boroughs.

She slammed Kensington's Tory-run council for presiding over the "deterioration and perhaps even deliberate managed decline of social housing."

She added: "I've seen housing conditions that are shocking.

"Homes growing toxic black mould. Five children squeezed on mattresses in one bedroom. Homework done in relays.

(Image: Getty)

"Chronic health problems such as asthma, with children being carted off to hospital at night.

"Malnutrition rife - a simple day-to-day organisation of clean clothes, food and personal cleanliness carried out in rotas to allow a semblance of respectability.

"Child poverty in Kensington is the same as child poverty in Hamilton East - 25%.

"People are proud. I've seen families coming out of disgracefully overcrowded and unhealthy homes who seem organised, clean, in control, however stressed and tired they are.

"I had late-night e-mails from one teenager sitting on the stairs to complete her GCSE homework when her family had gone to sleep - the only time she could do it.

"I visited a proud and ambitious family where four children including teenagers of opposite genders shared a bedroom.

(Image: Reuters)

"I visited a very dear confused elderly woman living in darkness for weeks as her electricity ring main had blown. And she was too afraid of strangers to let repair workers in."

MPs usually wait several weeks or even months before giving their first speech in the House of Commons chamber.

But Ms Dent Coad seized upon what she called "burnt-out carcass of Grenfell Tower and all it represents".

She added: "Some people think social tenants have no right to live in an area like 'desirable' Kensington.

"Some people demonstrate a total lack of empathy or even respect for those not born to a world where basic human comforts and a good education are given.

"Some people think social tenants should simply move away if they don't like what they've been given.

(Image: BBC Parliament)

"That housing people on low incomes in the inner city which they serve through their labour is not a public good - but some kind of privilege to which they are not really entitled."

Ms Dent Coad praised "wonderful" voluntary groups responding to the disaster but said: "I want to live in a world where charities don't exist, where volunteers aren't needed to fill the yawning gaps where local services have been cut or withdrawn, to be replaced - as it is in Kensington - by prep schools.

"People of all backgrounds should be safe in their beds, have food in the fridge, and shoes of the right size on their children's feet.

"The basic human needs cannot be met in a world of charities, food banks and handouts.

"In a council with a third of a billion pounds of reserves, I don't understand how that can be."