Grenfell fire: Council leader quits over fire response

[jayden™]

            Kensington and Chelsea Council leader Nick Paget-Brown has resigned following continued criticism of the council's handling of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. Mr Paget-Brown faced calls to resign from London Mayor Sadiq Khan and a number of other senior politicians. It comes after an aborted meeting of the council's cabinet in which leaders had tried to ban members of the public and press. At least 80 people are believed to have died in the blaze on 14 June.Deputy council leader and cabinet member for housing, property and regeneration, Rock Feilding-Mellen, also announced his resignation. The decision to adjourn Thursday night's meeting led to a rebuke from Downing Street on Friday. A Number 10 spokesman said: "The High Court ruled that the meeting should be open and we would have expected the council to respect that." Council leaders claimed an open meeting would "prejudice" the forthcoming public inquiry. But angry protests followed and Labour councillor Robert Atkinson, whose ward includes Grenfell Tower, branded the abandoned meeting a "fiasco". Mr Atkinson, the Labour group leader on Kensington and Chelsea, told the BBC he was "ashamed" of the authority. He accused leaders of "hiding from residents, they have been hiding from backbench councillors for over a week". The London mayor demanded the resignation of the entire council leadership on Friday morning, adding the council's decision to scrap the meeting "beggars belief". Mr Khan welcomed Mr Paget-Brown stepping down, saying: "Ever since the awful events of two weeks ago, it has been clear that the local community in and around north Kensington has lost trust in the council and that the administration is not fit for purpose. "Last night's decision to abandon the council's cabinet meeting has merely compounded the misery for local people who are grieving, traumatised and desperate for answers."