In the fall-out from last week’s devastating report on the Grenfell report, it seems one question has not been asked of the various Labour spokesmen out on the airwaves. In a 1,700-page report that apportioned blame for the 2017 tragedy widely, retired Court of Appeal judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick spared no one in his excoriating judgements. Ministers, officials and the cladding companies were all lacerated for the disaster which claimed the lives of 72 people.
Such findings must have come as a surprise to the man who is now our Foreign Secretary, David Lammy. As Dominic Lawson notes in today’s Daily Mail, Lammy’s reaction to the appointment of this distinguished judge in July 2017 was to trash his integrity. Sir Martin Moore-Bick is an ex-grammar school boy and the son of a dairyman: hardly a scion of the establishment. But that didn’t stop Lammy from suggesting that this ‘white, upper-middle class man’ should not have been trusted with the job, declaring that:
I think the victims will also say to themselves: when push comes to shove, there are some powerful people here – contractors, sub-contractors, local authorities, governments – and they look like this judge. Whose side will he be on?’
The side of the truth, it transpires. Moore-Bick’s work of six years has been commended and accepted by all sides across the political spectrum: including from HM Government in which Lammy now serves. Yet from our Foreign Secretary there has not been a word of regret or apology to the long-serving lawyer. As Lawson says:
This is, of course, a trivial matter compared with the corporate depravity and dishonesty laid bare by Moore-Bick’s report, and the pain of the families still seeking justice. But if the Foreign Secretary were capable of feeling shame, he would publicly acknowledge his own deplorable misjudgment.
Will he now do so? Don’t hold your breath.
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