A Labour minister in the housing department has given up her duties managing building safety and the government’s response to the Grenfell Tower fire.
According to the Sunday Times, survivors of the tragedy had called for Rushanara Ali to stand down after the newspaper highlighted her attendance at the Franco-British Colloque, a conference that brings together senior politicians, civil servants and business leaders.
For many years, the conference has been co-chaired by Pierre-André de Chalendar, who until recently served as chairman of Saint-Gobain – the parent company of one of the firms heavily criticised in the recent Grenfell inquiry.
While the MP for Bethnal Green and Stepney is not resigning as a minister, she said she was relinquishing her building safety brief because “perception matters”.
The last meeting of the Colloque was held in January, several months before the general election.
Mr De Chalendar reportedly no longer serves as the co-chair of the conference.
The former head of Saint-Gobain was in charge of the company at the time of the Grenfell fire, when it was a majority shareholder of Celotex.
Celotex was one of the firms to manufacture the combustible insulation inside the cladding on Grenfell Tower.
The Grenfell Inquiry’s Phase 2 report heavily criticised Celotex for launching a “dishonest scheme to mislead its customers” over the suitability of its insulation for use on high-rise buildings.
According to the register of MPs’ interests, Ali was one of half a dozen MPs who attended this year’s Colloque in Paris in January.
Ali was re-elected to her east London seat in July, where she has been an MP since 2010.
In a statement, the Minister for Homelessness and rough sleeping said: “Trusted relationships between ministers and the Grenfell community are essential for this Department.
“Before I became a minister, I called for the French delegation of the Franco-British Colloque to cut ties with Saint Gobain. But I understand that perception matters and I have therefore concluded that the building safety portfolio would be best transferred to another minister.
“Our goals of making buildings safe and preventing another tragedy continue to be very important issues for me, and the deputy prime minister and the rest of the ministerial team have my full support in delivering on this work.”
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