Queen at London Block Where 30 Died as May Criticized Over Fire

by Dramelin 6:30 AM 0 comments

Queen Elizabeth II meets firefighters during a visit to the Westway Sports Centre which is providing temporary shelter for those who have been made homeless in the Grenfell Tower fire disaster, in west London on June 16, 2017.
Queen Elizabeth II visited a relief center for victims of the fire in a London tower block that killed at least 30 people as criticism mounted on Prime Minister Theresa May over her response to the disaster.
The queen spoke to residents and members of the emergency services near the gutted Grenfell Tower on Friday morning, while May’s office said she would visit victims in hospital.
 On Thursday, May was pictured speaking to emergency workers, but was kept away from the public.
Officials cited security concerns and suggested she didn’t want to distract police and others from their work.
Reaction among Conservatives has ranged from criticism by former lawmakers to defensiveness by those serving in May’s Cabinet, adding to questions of whether May can survive politically.
Michael Portillo, who was part of a Tory government in the 1990s, accused May on the BBC of wanting “an entirely controlled situation in which she didn’t use her humanity.
” Authorities warned the death toll will continue to mount as they search the block, which housed hundreds of people, adding to pressure on May after last week’s disastrous election.
With Brexit talks starting Monday, the premier is still trying to broker a deal with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party that will allow her to get legislation through Parliament.
Londoners are on edge.
The tragedy in Grenfell Tower falls on the same month of a terror attack near Borough Market where eight people were stabbed to death.
On Friday, the police arrested a man with a knife outside Parliament’s Carriage Gates, where a terrorist stabbed a policeman to death in March after mowing down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge.
It’s a politically delicate time for May, who needs to demonstrate her leadership in front of a national tragedy that has exposed anger at the country’s social divisions and rage at the years of budget cuts under Tory government.
May’s visits have been contrasted to one by Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who ran a campaign promising to end austerity.
Corbyn met with members of the public and was pictured hugging tearful relatives of victims near the charred building.
Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom took questions from journalists and the public at the site on Friday, saying the the prime minister “is doing everything she can,” and will visit “if it’s felt that it would be helpful.
” "This is an absolute tragedy and there are always things that we all wish I’d said this or done that," Leadsom in an interview with Sky News.
"We’re all trying to do the best we can.
papers reflected the mood in the U.
The Sun ran a headline on its cover "Now the Anger," while the Mirror had a single word: "Criminal.
" The Times said the recently refurbished tower block had been fitted with cladding that wasn’t fireproof, and that for less than 5,000 pounds ($6,400), a fire resistant version could have been used instead.
  When the building was refurbished, "there were so many worries,” Labour councilor Judith Blakeman, who liaised with the building’s residents, told the BBC on Friday.
"We kept raising them with the tenant management organization and we kept being told that there was no problem.
Throughout it, there were a range of concerns about fire safety.
" The government also faced questions about failing to act after a similar fire in 2009.
Housing Minister Alok Sharma told lawmakers on Thursday that a consultation document was close to completion when the general election was called, and it would now be revised to reflect on the Grenfell Tower fire.
Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said work is starting to check on the safety of 4,000 similar buildings across the country.
“We have to act on it and act on it immediately,” Javid told BBC Radio 4.
 “We have to be led by the expert opinion on this.
Whatever they tell us is necessary to make those people safe.
There can be no shortcuts to this.