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London
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday (Sep 4) apologised on behalf of the British State to victims of the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire.
72 people were killed when the blaze ripped through the 23-storey social housing block in one of the richest areas of west London during the early hours of June 14, 2017. It was Britain's deadliest blaze in a residential building since World War II.
"I want to start with an apology on behalf of the British State to each and every one of you, and indeed, to all of the families affected by this tragedy," he told parliament, responding to the publication of a public inquiry report into the blaze.
"It should never have happened. The country failed to discharge its most fundamental duty: to protect you and your loved ones, the people that we are here to serve, and I am deeply sorry."
In its long-awaited final report, the inquiry laid most responsibility for the disaster on the companies involved in the maintenance and refit of the apartment tower, failings by local and national authorities as well as companies which had dishonestly marketed combustible cladding materials as safe.
There was also condemnation of those firms which made and sold the cladding or its foam insulation - Celotex, Kingspan, and Arconic Architectural Products, the French subsidiary of US company Arconic. The inquiry concluded that there had been "systematic dishonesty" on their part.
"They engaged in deliberate and sustained strategies to manipulate the testing processes, misrepresent tested data and misled the market," the report said.
Watch | What led to Grenfall tower fire? Final Inquiry report released
There was also widespread criticism and blame levelled at the then-government, local authority of Kensington and Chelsea, the industry, regulatory groups, specific individuals and an ill-prepared fire brigade for years of inaction over fire safety in high-rise blocks.
In Britain, government figures from July showed 3,280 buildings standing at 11 metres or higher still had unsafe cladding, with remediation work yet to start on more than two-thirds of them.
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