00:00Mr. Speaker, I want to speak directly to the bereaved families, the survivors, and those
00:07in the immediate Grenfell community, some of whom are with us in the gallery today.
00:14Sir Martin concluded this morning, and I'm afraid there's no way of repeating this
00:21that won't be painful. He said the simple truth is that the deaths that occurred were
00:27all avoidable, and that those who lived in the tower were badly failed over a number
00:32of years and in a number of different ways, by, as the report lays out in full, just about
00:40every institution responsible for ensuring their safety.
00:45Mr. Speaker, in the face of an injustice so painful, so deserving of anger, words can
00:52begin to lose their meaning. Seven years still waiting for the justice that you deserve.
01:01I want to say very clearly on behalf of the country, you've been let down so badly before,
01:08during, and in the aftermath of this tragedy. And while Sir Martin sets out a catalogue
01:16of appalling industry failures, for which there must now be full accountability, he
01:23also finds, and I quote, decades of failure by central government.
01:30He concludes that in the years between the fire at Knowsley Heights in 1991 and the fire
01:37at Grenfell Tower in 2017, there were many opportunities for the government to identify
01:43the risks posed by the use of combustible cladding panels and insulation. And he concludes,
01:51and I quote, by 2016, the department was well aware of those risks, but failed to act on
01:59what they knew. He further finds that the department itself was poorly run, and the
02:06government's deregulatory agenda dominated the department's thinking to such an extent
02:11that even matters affecting the safety of life were ignored, delayed, or disregarded.
02:20So Mr Speaker, I want to start with an apology on behalf of the British state to each and
02:28every one of you, and indeed to all of the families affected by this tragedy. It should
02:35never have happened. The country failed to discharge its most fundamental duty, to protect
02:43you and your loved ones, the people that we are here to serve, and I am deeply sorry.
02:52I also want to express my admiration for the strength it must have taken to relive these
02:56events when giving your evidence to the inquiry, and indeed, to see written down today the
03:05circumstances that led to the death of your loved ones. After all you've been through,
03:12you may feel you're always one step away from another betrayal.
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