To the surprise of no-one (or, at least, no-one in their right minds), Tory MP and villain from a Charles Dickens novel Jacob Rees-Mogg has said something despicable. Speaking to LBC’s Nick Ferari show on Monday about the Grenfell fire, Rees-Mogg said: “The more one’s read over the weekend about the report and about the chances of people surviving, if you just ignore what you’re told and leave, you are so much safer. And I think if either of us were in a fire, whatever the fire brigade said, we would leave the burning building. It just seems the common sense thing to do.”
Very cool and humane of him to imply that the people who died in a horrible, preventable tragedy did so because they were *checks notes* stupid. Given that his government’s spending cuts have been directly implicated in Grenfell, it makes sense that Rees-Mogg would try to shift the blame.
Justifiably, he has faced a severe and widespread backlash for these comments. Stormzy, not one to shy away from criticising the government over its handling of Grenfell, was one of the people to lead the charge, writing a detailed and excoriating thread of tweets denouncing Rees-Mogg and demanding he resign.
“Oi @Jacob_Rees_Mogg you need to resign you’re an actual piece of shit,” the grime artist tweeted. “I can’t believe the cheek fucking hell these politicians are actual aliens. My man said ‘if either of us were in fire, whatever the fire brigade said, we’d leave a burning building’ as if to say ‘come on bro, they were just dumb’ as if those who lost their lives weren’t smart enough to escape. Fucking hell this man is the scummiest.
“You can’t even make this stuff up,” the thread continued. “Donny said ‘If you JUST ignore what you’re told and leave you are so much safer’ BRUV!!!!! Let’s bare in mind for 2 secs how horrifying and terrifying the situation would of been for the victims. And then imagine they’re being instructed by fire fighters — trusted government authorities — to stay put. This scumbag is saying ‘well boy you lot are dumb to of listened then’ can you imagine?”
According to Stormzy, Rees Mogg’s Tory party are the ultimate culprits behind the tragedy: “The government are to blame for Grenfell not the fire brigade. Point blank.”
Stormzy wasn’t the only public figure to denounce Rees-Mogg’s intervention. Jeremy Corbyn, for instance, demanded an immediate apology for ‘these crass and insensitive comments.” This apology was forthcoming, (“What I meant to say is that I would have also listened to the fire brigade’s advice to stay and wait at the time”, Rees-Mogg claimed, not altogether convincingly) but it seems to have done little to quell the public outrage.
However, given the general shamelessness of the modern Tory party, it seems optimistic to think Rees-Mogg will resign: after all, Boris Johnson — a man who, it was recently revealed, gave thousands of pounds of public money to a close friend, and has long track record of racist and homophobic remarks — is still Prime Minister.