“I think what I tried to do is take a really difficult meeting, and explain to people … knowing full well that whatever I said in that room that night was going to be very traumatic for people, and people would be upset,” she said.
Angela Rayner has defended her handling of a meeting with bereaved families and survivors of the Grenfell disaster after some said they felt ignored by her decision to tear the tower down.
Also in the interview, Rayner denied that her decision last week to postpone local elections in nine councils across England as part of her devolution plans was a “stitch-up”, after criticism from Reform UK that the rightwing party would have otherwise taken swathes of seats.
The deputy prime minister told the meeting last week that the 24-storey tower would be gradually dismantled, nearly eight years after the fire which killed 72 people, receiving a mixed reaction from those affected by the disaster.
A spokesperson for Grenfell Next Of Kin, a separate group representing some bereaved families, said that while the decision was “obviously a very sensitive and difficult” one, families “understand the hard facts around safety”.
