Grenfell Tower fire '˜murder' comment was '˜disgraceful' - MP Soames

At least 80 people are missing and presumed dead after a fire broke out at the 24-storey west London tower block two weeks ago.

Investigations into how the fire spread so quickly have focused on the type of cladding used during recent refurbishments of the tower.

Prime Minister Theresa May has ordered a public inquiry, and tests on cladding in other tower blocks across the country are taking place.

At the weekend during an event in Glastonbury John McDonnell, MP for Hayes and Harlington, is reported to have suggested the victims of the fire were ‘murdered by political decisions’.

Speaking in the House of Commons today, Sir Nicholas Soames, Mid Sussex MP, said: “It’s incumbent on all of us to measure our language as we come to deal with these events and I wish to place on record my deep shock at the words that the shadow chancellor has recently used that the fire at Grenfell Tower amounted to murder.

“That was an inexpressibly appalling thing to say.

“In a civilised society there can be no room for this kind of talk. It is not normal. It is not politics as usual, it is disgraceful and it is intolerable, and all of us in public life have a duty to measure in care what we say in an era of brutal untruths and to try to retain the language of reason and proportion.”

He extended on behalf of all his constituents’ their ‘profoundest sympathies’ to the victims and their families of the events in Manchester, London Bridge, Finsbury Park, and in the Grenfell Tower fire.