A former housing executive fired by Reform UK for making “shameful” comments about the 2017 Grenfell Tower tragedy still claims to have a role in the party, DeSmog can reveal.
Simon Dudley, a former chair of Homes England, was removed as the party’s housing spokesperson for making – in the words of Reform leader Nigel Farage – “shocking” and “deeply inappropriate” comments about the disaster.
In an interview with Inside Housing in April, Dudley said the deadly blaze, which led to the deaths of 72 people, was a “tragedy” but that “everyone dies in the end”. He claimed that rules introduced in the wake of the fire to improve safety standards were examples of “regulation which is not working”.
Dudley was roundly criticised for his remarks, including by groups representing Grenfell survivors and next of kin. The then prime minister Keir Starmer called the comments “shameful”.
However, despite being sacked as Reform’s housing spokesperson, Dudley still appears to work with the party.
He introduced Reform’s deputy leader and housing chief Richard Tice to business delegates at the party’s annual conference in September, and chaired a question and answer session following Tice’s speech.
Credit: Simon Dudley / LinkedIn
According to a transcript, Tice thanked Dudley for his “generous” introduction, after which Tice presented Reform’s sweeping policies to deregulate the planning system.
While Dudley’s exact role in the party is not known, his social media profiles – including his up-to-date LinkedIn CV – continue to list him in a ‘Housing and Infrastructure’ position at Reform.
He’s also a keen party activist who has accused the Conservatives of copying Reform’s ideas and who campaigned for Farage in this summer’s Clacton by-election.
Neither Reform nor Dudley denied that he is still involved in the party when approached by DeSmog for comment.
However, Dudley’s continued involvement contrasts starkly with Reform’s response to his remarks in April.
“He’s under Richard Tice’s department, Richard appointed him housing spokesman given his depth of experience in developing new towns,” Farage said at the time. “But the comments were deeply inappropriate, they were frankly rather shocking to many people, and Richard has dealt with it.”
In response to the backlash in April, Dudley said that “Grenfell was an utter tragedy and quite rightly prompted a wholesale review and tightening of fire regulations.”
He added: “I said it was a tragedy in my interview with Inside House [sic] and in no shape or form am I belittling that disaster or the huge loss of life. It must never happen again. I reiterate that, and am sorry if it was not sufficiently clear.”
A new undercover investigation due to be released by ITV in full on Sunday 18 October shows Reform councillors making a number of sexist and racist comments. One Reform councillor from south London is filmed saying that King Charles should be decapitated because he is secretly a Muslim.
A version of this article was also published by The New World.
Reform’s Deregulation Agenda
The Grenfell Tower fire on 14 June 2017 was one of the worst tragedies in modern British history. Just before 1am, a high-rise fire broke out in the 24-storey block in Kensington, London, which spread rapidly due to the highly combustible cladding that had been installed on the building a year earlier.
The government has subsequently introduced new fire safety rules, particularly in relation to high-rise blocks, to prevent another similar disaster.
However, Reform initially echoed Dudley’s remarks about the new regulations being too onerous. Speaking in April, a party spokesperson said: “Simon’s comments on Grenfell reflected his broader point that the regulatory pendulum has swung too far in response to the tragedy. As he explained, there is a fine balance between over-regulation – which can slow the delivery of new homes – and ensuring that more homes are built safely without too much red tape.”
Credit: Simon Dudley / X
This conforms to Reform’s deregulation agenda, which would reduce the taxes and laws applied to major corporations, potentially benefitting some of the party’s biggest donors.
Reform has supported more permissive rules for the crypto, finance, and housing industries – all of which have contributed substantially to the party’s coffers – with Farage promising a “bonfire of business regulation” if he becomes prime minister.
This also applies to the oil and gas industry. Reform, which has accepted more than £24 million from fossil fuel interests, has said it would scrap the windfall tax on fossil fuel profits, end the ban on new North Sea drilling licences, and ditch the moratorium on fracking for shale gas.
Senior Reform figure Andrea Jenkyns, the mayor for Greater Lincolnshire, has said that she would “turn the countryside into Swiss cheese” through the mass expansion of fracking across the UK.
The party, some of whose senior figures frequently deny the science of climate change, would dramatically increase the production of fossil fuels in the UK and reduce state support for renewable energy – despite the impact of high gas prices on the cost of living, and the growing frequency of climate-induced extreme weather events.
