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A councillor who had oversight of Grenfell Tower and dismissed some residents’ complaints about refurbishments as “grossly exaggerated” has donated to Kemi Badenoch’s Tory leadership campaign.
Quentin Marshall, who has been a councillor in Kensington and Chelsea since 2008, has given £5,000 to the right-winger’s bid to succeed Rishi Sunak.
Mr Marshall, who has served as chairman of the Housing and Property Scrutiny committee, as well as the Planning committee, complained about “a very unpleasant campaign” against Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), which owned Grenfell Tower, 15 months before the fire broke out.
Emails seen by the public inquiry into the tragedy show Mr Marshall said he was “not massively sympathetic to general ‘it’s all terrible’ complaints” from residents concerned about the amount the council was investing.
Appearing before the public inquiry, Mr Marshall said his committee had “lacked a little humanity”. He added: “I would like to apologise to the people involved for that. I think we could have done better.”
Ed Daffarn, a 16th floor resident who tried to blow the whistle about serious problems before the June 2017 fire, told The Guardian: “I am appalled that a councillor implicated in the Grenfell Tower tragedy with the loss of 72 lives would support a candidate that is promoting deregulation.
“I worry that the Conservatives have learned nothing from Grenfell and are promoting policies that put profits before people and ignore the health and safety of residents as we saw at Grenfell with such devastating effects.”
A spokesman for Mr Marshall told the paper: “Quentin has always been committed to public service and the safety and wellbeing of residents.
“He respects the findings of the Grenfell Tower inquiry and remains deeply saddened by the tragedy. Mr Marshall continues to support efforts to ensure such an event never happens again and believes in the importance of robust regulatory frameworks to protect communities.”
Ms Badenoch declined to comment. As business secretary she announced initiatives to “slash red tape for business” and she has spoken about her “intense dislike of burdensome, arcane and quite often needless regulation”.
Sir Martin Moore-Bick’s inquiry into the Grenfell fire has said the 2010-2015 Conservative government’s deregulation drive meant concerns about the safety of life were “ignored, delayed or disregarded” in the years before the disaster.
The donation to Ms Badenoch emerged as leadership rival Robert Jenrick was forced to defend £100,000 of donations from entrepreneur Phillip Ullmann, telling the BBC they were “perfectly normal”.
He has faced questions about the donations from Mr Ullmann’s firm The Spott Fitness, which has no employees, has never made a profit and has more than £300,000 of debts, and in January it registered a loan from Centrovalli, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands.
But Mr Jenrick added: “He’s a British businessman who has a range of different businesses. He’s given money to my campaign, as he has to others, including Labour politicians in the past.
“I think his motivation is that he shares my concern about mass migration. He wants to see us control and reduce immigration. He’s given it through companies. He’s done some in his own personal name, and some through a British company registered company’s house in an entirely legal and transparent way.”
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