Minister Rushanara Ali has relinquished her building safety responsibilities due to “perceptions” about her regular attendance at conferences co-chaired by a boss at the parent firm of Grenfell insulation manufacturer Celotex.
The Times last month reported that on 10 occasions over the past 12 years Ali had attended the Franco-British Colloque, a cross-channel policy forum for politicians and business leaders.
From 2012 to 2024, the forum was co-chaired by Pierre-André de Chalendar, former long-serving chief executive and chair of Saint-Gobain, which owns Celotex, the company which provided most of the flammable insulation used on Grenfell Tower.
In a statement on Saturday, Ali said: “Trusted relationships between ministers and the Grenfell community are essential for this department.
“Before I became a minister, I called for the French delegation of the Franco-British Colloque to cut ties with Saint-Gobain.
“But I understand that perception matters and I have therefore concluded that the building safety portfolio would be best transferred to another minister.”
Parliament’s register of interests shows that Ali received donations from the event’s organisers totalling £9,140 for travel, food and accommodation for attending the Colloque between 2013 and this February.
Following Ali’s announcement, The Times reported that Grenfell United, which represents survivors and bereaved families, had last week demanded that housing secretary, Angela Rayner, remove Ali from the brief.
At the time of publication, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) had not replied to a query from Construction News asking whether Ali had voluntarily relinquished her building safety duties.
In September, the phase two report of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry said that Celotex, whose insulation product was used on 95 per cent of the building, “embarked on its own campaign to break into the market by dishonest means”.
Celotex marketed RS5000 as “the first PIR board to successfully test to BS8414” and as “acceptable for use in buildings above 18 metres in height”, the report said.
But the report on which Celotex based that claim had been “manipulated… a fact that Celotex did not disclose in its marketing literature”, the inquiry panel said.
In a statement following the phase two report, Celotex said that the cladding system described in the Celotex RS5000 marketing literature met the relevant safety criteria”.
The firm added: “That system was substantially different to that used at Grenfell Tower. Decisions about design, construction and the selection of materials for the tower were made by construction industry professionals.”
It is understood that Ali, Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Stepney, will continue as a minister within MHCLG, retaining responsibility for the other aspects of her role, including homelessness.
In her statement, Ali 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.”
CN research shows that Michael Gove, Rayner’s predecessor as housing secretary, attended the Franco-British Colloque in 2020 and 2018, receiving £1,679.37 in donations from the organisers to cover travel, food and accommodation.
A spokesperson for MHCLG told Construction News on Saturday evening that it has had assurances that the French delegation has now cut all ties with Saint-Gobain.
