Rushanara Ali loses building safety brief over hospitality row

The building safety minister has relinquished the brief after reportedly alienating relatives of Grenfell victims over receiving hospitality from building material firms.

Grenfell United, a group representing survivors of the tragedy and bereaved families, demanded that Rushanara Ali be removed from her position, according to The Sunday Times.

The MP for Bethnal Green and Bow had regularly attended the Franco-British Colloque, an annual policy forum which was co-chaired by Pierre-Andre de Chalendar between 2012 and 2024.

De Chalendar was chairman of Saint-Gobain at the time of the Grenfell tragedy, when the French business was majority owner of Celotex, the company which made the flammable insulation used behind the panels on most of the building.

It was one of the three firms accused of “systematic dishonesty” in the marketing of its products by the Grenfell Inquiry’s phase two report.

> Also read: ‘We will deliver a generational shift’… Why the Grenfell Inquiry report means another building safety shake-up

The Sunday Times reported that Ali had attended the colloque 10 times since 2013 and received at least £9,140 in free hospitality. 

Ali will remain a minister within the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government with responsibility for homelessness and rough sleeping, but she said that “perception matters” and that she had concluded that the building safety portfolio “would be best transferred to another minister”. 

“Trusted relationships between ministers and the Grenfell community are essential for this department,” she said.

“Our goals of making buildings safe and preventing another tragedy continue to be very important issues for me, and the deputy prime minister and the rest of the ministerial team have my full support in delivering on this work.”

Ali claimed that before she had become a minister she had called for the French delegation of the Franco-British Colloque to cut ties with Saint Gobain, which the department said it had received assurances had been done.

It is not yet clear who will take over the building safety brief.