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Kensington and Chelsea council leader quits in wake of Grenfell disaster Kensington and Chelsea council leader quits in wake of Grenfell disaster
(35 minutes later)
The Conservative leader and deputy leader of the embattled Kensington and Chelsea council have both resigned in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster. The Tory leader of Kensington and Chelsea council is to step down along with his deputy after weeks of criticism over the response to the Grenfell Tower fire, culminating in a bungled attempt to hold a meeting about the blaze in private.
Nicholas Paget-Brown said he would step down as soon as a new leader was in place, amid criticism over the local authority’s response to the tragedy and, more recently over his decision to seek to bar the press and public from the first council meeting following the fire. Nicholas Paget-Brown, who became the focus of protests over the Conservative-run authority’s actions before and after the deadly inferno, said he was departing to accept some responsibility for “perceived failings” by the council.
In a parallel statement, the deputy leader, Rock Feilding-Mellen, who is also responsible for housing, said he would depart as well. It follows condemnation from both Downing Street and the communities secretary, Sajid Javid, after Paget-Brown’s decision to call off the first post-fire council cabinet meeting when the high court ruled he could not stop journalists from attending it after a legal challenge led by the Guardian.
Paget-Brown said his successor would appoint a new deputy leader and cabinet. He said: “As council leader I have to accept my share of responsibility for these perceived failings.” The council had already seen its direct role in caring for survivors of the fire taken from it by ministers earlier this month, with a dedicated response team created amid concerns at the slow pace of efforts to provide survivors and bereaved families with housing and information.
He identified as a key factor the chaotic scenes on Thursday evening when he called a halt to the first council meeting following the fire, after failing in an attempt to have the media barred from the event. Paget-Brown, a councillor for more than 30 years, resisted calls to go then. But on Friday evening he said he must “accept my share of responsibility”. He said he would depart as soon as a successor was in place, and that his deputy leader, Rock Feilding-Mellen, who is also responsible for housing, would go as well.
He said: “In particular my decision to accept legal advice that I should not compromise the public inquiry by having an open discussion in public yesterday has itself become a political story. And it cannot be right that this should have become the focus of attention when so many are dead or still unaccounted for.” Feilding-Mellon was the councillor ultimately responsible for the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower with the cladding that is widely believed to have fuelled the blaze that killed at least 80 people. It had emerged earlier on Friday that the council had approved the replacement of fire-resistant zinc cladding with cheaper aluminium panels.
The fire had been “a huge human tragedy for so many families”, Paget-Brown said: “The task for my successor is to ensure that the strengths which also characterise this place, and North Kensington in particular, are seen to play their part in bringing the community together and ensuring that this borough, the most wonderful place, can start to move forward from this tragedy.” Documents seen by the Guardian showed this saved £293,368, with the project manager for the housing organisation in the borough emailing consultant to saying they needed to find “good costs” for Feilding-Mellon.
Both Downing Street and the communities secretary, Sajid Javid, said the Conservative-run council should have allowed the media to attend its cabinet meeting. Paget-Brown identified as a key factor in his decision for the scenes on Thursday evening, when he called a halt to the cabinet meeting after failing to have the media barred from the event, saying to go ahead with journalists present could prejudice the public inquiry into the fire.
A No 10 spokeswoman said the prime minister “would have expected the council to respect” a high court ruling that said journalists should be allowed at the meeting. Paget-Brown blamed the advice of lawyers for his order to keep the press out of the meeting, which was overturned by a high court judge after the Guardian and a group of other media organisations objected at the last minute.
While Downing Street also said the council had made some progress over its response to the fire, which killed at least 80 people, it was understood to be angry about the scenes at the cabinet meeting on Thursday evening. He said: “In particular my decision to accept legal advice that I should not compromise the public inquiry by having an open discussion in public yesterday has itself become a political story. And it cannot be right that this should have become the focus of attention when so many are dead or still unaccounted for.” The new leader would pick their own cabinet, Paget-Brown added.
However, it is understood that there was no overt pressure from No 10 for Paget-Brown and his team to step down. Downing Street was understood to be furious at the chaotic scenes at the meeting, which saw Labour opposition councillors shouting in fury as Paget-Brown announced it would have to end because he could not discuss the fire with journalists in the room.
Greg Hands, the Conservative MP for Chelsea and Fulham who also has the role of minister for London, said it was the right decision for Paget-Brown to go, and signalled a more interventionist approach from government towards the council. A No 10 spokeswoman said the prime minister “would have expected the council to respect” the high court ruling. She said: “Our view is that access to democracy should always be easy, and we think that’s vital if people want to retain confidence in our democratic system. I can’t obviously speak for the council, but there are rules that state all meetings must be open to the public except in certain circumstances.”
Javid said: “Access to the democratic process should always be open and transparent.”
The attempt to hold the meeting in private prompted alarm from press organisations. On Friday, the Guardian wrote to the council asking it to confirm it would allow reporters to attend future meetings connected to Grenfell Tower.
The newspaper’s legal director, Gill Phillips, said the argument that reporting of Thursday’s meeting could prejudice the public inquiry “can only be interpreted as suggesting that the council were wanting to discuss matters that they did not want the public inquiry to know about”.
While it is understood that there was no overt pressure from No 10 for Paget-Brown and his team to step down, ministers welcomed the move and immediately signalled a more interventionist approach towards the council as it struggles to deal with the aftermath of one of the UK’s most serious postwar civil disasters.
Greg Hands, the Conservative MP for Chelsea and Fulham, who also has the role of minister for London, said it was the “right decision” for Paget-Brown to go, and signalled a more interventionist approach from government towards the council.
He tweeted: “I will be working closely with Kensington & Chelsea councillors to ensure a new council leader who commands support within the group and the wider public and from government. Lessons need to be learned & action taken in response to Grenfell Tower.”He tweeted: “I will be working closely with Kensington & Chelsea councillors to ensure a new council leader who commands support within the group and the wider public and from government. Lessons need to be learned & action taken in response to Grenfell Tower.”
Paget-Brown faced repeated calls to step down, both from political opponents and groups representing Grenfell Tower survivors and relatives. Labour called for more direct control over a council which at the time of the fire had built up £274m in reserves, and had offered rebates to residents paying the top rate of council tax, and spent £1.5m setting up a charity to run opera events in the well-off Holland Park neighbourhood.
Earlier this month the government relieved the council of responsibility for taking care of the survivors, with the work handed over to a response team made up of representatives from central government, the British Red Cross, the police and fire services, among others. The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said the government should appoint commissioners to take over the running of the council “to act in the best interests of residents” until the next local council elections.
Pressure on Paget-Brown rose again after the council said on Thursday that the public and media would be barred from a cabinet meeting to avoid potential disorder. After a last-minute legal challenge from media organisations including the Guardian, the high court said accredited journalists could attend. Andrew Gwynne MP, the shadow communities secretary, said Javid must begin “an immediate review into the adequacy of corporate governance with a view to sending in commissioners to take control of the council if necessary”.
But when the meeting began Paget-Brown made a brief statement and then closed the session, saying it could not continue with journalists present. This prompted loud objections from opposition councillors. Robert Atkinson, leader of the council’s Labour group, who expressed fury as the cabinet meeting was closed, said Paget-Brown had “totally failed” since the disaster.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said: “Our view is that access to democracy should always be easy, and we think that’s vital if people want to retain confidence in our democratic system. He told Sky News: “My reaction is one of relief because, with the departure of the council leader, perhaps the council can now start to organise itself to provide the services that the residents so desperately need.”
“I can’t obviously speak for the council, but there are rules that state all meetings must be open to the public except in certain circumstances. Paget-Brown said he hoped his departure would mark a new stage for the area after what had been “a huge human tragedy for so many families”.
“As we saw in this specific case, the high court ruled that the meeting should be open, and we would have expected the council to respect that.” He said: “The task for my successor is to ensure that the strengths which also characterise this place, and North Kensington in particular, are seen to play their part in bringing the community together and ensuring that this borough, the most wonderful place, can start to move forward from this tragedy.”
Javid had said: “Access to the democratic process should always be open and transparent – I would urge all levels of government to always favour this approach so people can retain confidence in the system.” Earlier on Friday, the organisation which manages Grenfell Tower said its chief executive would step aside to “concentrate on assisting with the investigation and inquiry”.
Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation said Robert Black would be replaced by an interim chief executive.