Farage sacks Reform housing spokesman over ‘everyone dies’ Grenfell remark

Nigel Farage has sacked Simon Dudley as Reform UK’s housing spokesman after mounting anger over his comment that the Grenfell Tower fire was a “tragedy” but that “everyone dies in the end”.

Reform leader Mr Farage said Mr Dudley is “no longer a spokesman” for the party after his “deeply inappropriate” words at a central London press conference on Thursday.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had joined calls for Mr Dudley to be fired over the “shameful” remarks, which a bereaved and survivors’ group branded “deeply dehumanising”.

Mr Dudley, who was appointed as housing spokesman for Reform last month, had said the pendulum had “swung too far the wrong way” on regulation after the 2017 west London tower block inferno, which killed 72 people.

The former executive at Homes England and the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation said in an interview with Inside Housing published on Wednesday that building safety regulations introduced after the Grenfell Tower fire were an example of “regulation which is not working”.

He went on to say: “Sadly, you know, everyone dies in the end. It’s just how you go, right?”

On Thursday, the Reform figure said “in no shape or form am I belittling that disaster or the huge loss of life”, adding he was “sorry if it was not sufficiently clear”.

Grenfell United, which represents many of the families bereaved by the fire as well as survivors, said the comments were “not just insensitive” but “deeply dehumanising”.

In a statement on Thursday, the group said: “Our loved ones did not simply ‘die’. They were failed.

“They were trapped in their homes, in a building that should have been safe, in a fire that should never have happened.

“Reducing their deaths to an inevitability strips away the truth: this was preventable.”

Asked whether Mr Dudley would be sacked in light of the remarks, Reform leader Mr Farage told a central London press conference: “That has already happened.”

Pressed by reporters on what he meant, Mr Farage responded: “He is no longer a spokesman for the party.”

The Reform leader then added: “He is not a spokesman for the party. That has been dealt with.”

Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, was responsible for telling Mr Dudley he was no longer a spokesman for the party, Mr Farage revealed.

He later described Mr Dudley’s remarks as “frankly rather insulting to a very large number of people”.

But asked whether he would apologise for the Reform housing spokesman’s position, Mr Farage appeared unwilling to do so.

He told reporters: “This is modern journalism, isn’t it? Apologise, apologise, apologise, to victims of the Amritsar massacre, et cetera.

“I don’t think I can say any more than that. What more can I say than I think the comments were, I’ve said, offensive, deeply inappropriate, ill-judged.

“If that isn’t a pretty clear signal, I couldn’t even tell you what is.”