Others failed before, now Starmer must deliver justice for Grenfell victims

Two weeks ago, Sir Keir Starmer made a private visit to the shell of Grenfell Tower.

In the House of Commons, you could hear a pin drop as the Prime Minister described how he “walked down that narrow staircase from the 23rd floor” and “looked at walls burned by 1,000°C heat”, receiving a glimpse into “how utterly, utterly terrifying it must have been” for those who were trapped in the high-rise on that terrible summer night seven years ago.

Sir Keir said the visit had left him with “profound” determination to make sure that the lessons of the Grenfell Tower Public Inquiry are fully learned. But the PM knows that for the survivors and the family of the Grenfell bereaved, what matters now is not words, but actions.

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Some of those actions are outside of his control. The question of whether we ever see criminal prosecutions of the individuals and organisations responsible for Grenfell will mainly depend on the police and the Crown Prosecution Service.

However, there are other matters where the ball lies squarely in the Government’s court. The PM has already said that the firms responsible for the tragedy will be barred from winning public contracts.

Perhaps the biggest challenge for ministers is speeding up the remediation of unsafe cladding from other buildings. Sir Keir indicated that criminal penalties could be in store at developers’ feet.

As he said, many of the survivors of Grenfell feel they are “always just one step away from another betrayal”.

Now, the responsibility falls to him that they are not let down once again.