Damian Green calls criticism of PM ‘terribly unfair’ after she sidesteps questions over her handling of tower block blaze

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Theresa May’s most senior minister has attempted to defend her handling of the Grenfell Tower blaze after the prime minister faced renewed criticism for sidestepping questions over misreading the public mood.

Damian Green, the first secretary of state appointed after the general election, said criticism of May had been “terribly unfair”. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “She’s distraught by what happened as we all are.”

In an interview on Friday, however, the prime minister avoided questions over whether she had misjudged the public mood when she failed to quickly meet victims of the fire.

May said the blaze, which has killed at least 30 people, with dozens more missing, was “absolutely horrifying” and had been a terrifying experience for those affected.

Emily Maitlis, who interviewed her, suggested the public needed to hear her say something had gone badly wrong and that the government accepted responsibility, but May said: “Something terrible has happened.

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“This is an absolutely awful fire that took place. People have lost their lives, people have had their homes destroyed, they have fled for their lives with absolutely nothing.”

Asked if she had misread the public anger, she replied: “What I have done since this incident took place is, first of all, ensure that the public services had the support they need in order to be able to do the job they were doing in the immediate aftermath.”

Pressed again on whether she had failed to understand the public’s anger, May said: “This was a terrible tragedy that took place. People have lost their lives and others have lost everything, all their possessions, their home and everything. What we are doing is putting in place the support that will help them.

“But it is a terrible tragedy. I have heard horrifying stories from the fire brigade, from police and from victims themselves who were in that tower but also from other local residents, some of whom of course have not been able to go back to their homes either.

“What I’m now absolutely focused on is ensuring that we get that support on the ground.

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“Government is making money available, we are ensuring we are going to get to the bottom of what happened, we will ensure that people are rehoused, but we need to make sure that that actually happens.”

May said the public inquiry into the fire would take place as soon as possible and insisted the government had acted on previous warnings about tower block safety by a coroner.

George Eaton (@georgeeaton) Theresa May really needed to break from her robotic interview style there - didn't happen. #newsnight

“The government has taken action on the recommendations of the coroner’s report,” she said.

Asked how residents in other high-rise blocks would be able to sleep at night, May said: “The government is doing everything in its power to ensure that people are safe. We have identified those buildings and now and over the weekend people are going in and inspecting those buildings.”

Jonathan Lis (@jonlis1) May on #newsnight refuses even to consider answers to tough Qs & repeats rehearsed lines verbatim. Looks rattled & nervous. Painful watch.

The prime minister’s performance prompted scorn on social media, including from once-friendly media outlets such as the Daily Mail, which panned her interview online under the headline “Maybot malfunction”.

Anita Singh (@anitathetweeter) Theresa May just repeating the same phrases over and over again with blind panic in her eyes #Newsnight

Defending May on Saturday morning, Green said: “Absolutely she has the same degree of sympathy and horror at these events that we all have.”

He added that the government expected to appoint a chair to lead the public inquiry “in days rather than weeks”.

“We want it to be able to have interim reports as well,” he said. “So this is not going to be one of those exercises of using a public inquiry to delay a response. Actually, we want the response to be as fast as possible.”

Green said the inquiry would look at whether sprinklers should be retrofitted to tower blocks and that the government would follow the recommendations of the public inquiry.

May met a group of victims, residents, volunteers and community leaders at a church close to the scene of the blaze on Friday, and visited survivors in hospital.

The visits, however, which took place more than 48 hours after the fire broke out, have done little to quell the growing anger over the way she has dealt with the tragedy.

As she left St Clement’s church following a visit lasting less than an hour, the PM faced cries of “coward” and “shame on you”. One woman wept, saying it was because May had declined to speak to anyone outside the meeting.

It has also emerged that May wrote a detailed letter to Conservative MPs on Friday outlining the government’s plan to respond to the fire.

Press Association contributed to this report