Barrister tells Grenfell inquiry firefighters 'must not be scapegoated' and calls for extra investment

The lawyer representing the occupant of the flat where the Grenfell Tower fire started has told a public inquiry the fire brigade must “not be scapegoated” and blamed budget cuts for the department’s failings.

He said that firefighters on the ground were "part of the solution, not part of the problem" and "the rank and file, including watch managers like Mike Dowden, were not responsible for the inadequacy of their training".

Rajiv Menon QC, the barrister for Behailu Kebede, 45, added: "This would not, and I quote, be a 'fearless reckoning with what went wrong and what must be different in the future"'.

He called for extra investment, saying: "As a society there is no point in producing endless reports unless we reverse fire safety deregulation by reregulating."

Mr Menon it was important to "reverse cuts by substantially investing in the fire and rescue services".

The inquiry is currently hearing closing statements from lawyers representing the bereaved, survivors, and organisations involved with the tower.

Mr Menon also called the claim that the fire could have been sparked by a lit cigarette as “desperate” and “pure speculation”.

Whirlpool Corporation, which produces the Hotpoint fridge freezer where the fire is believed to have started, has said the blaze may not have started electrically.

He dismissed their claim that it instead could have been lit by “a someone throwing something - perhaps a burning cigarette - into the kitchen through the open window.”

He added: "As far as the theory of the fire having started as a result of something being thrown through the open window is concerned, this is pure speculation, desperate to put it politely.

"There is no evidence in support, it would have been impossible for a cigarette or some other mystery item to have been launched from ground level four floors down and it is equally impossible to imagine how a cigarette or some other mystery item discarded from a flat above could have miraculously entered the kitchen through the open window, let alone set anything in the vicinity alight."

Whirlpool is said to have made the claim in its closing statement, which has been circulated among lawyers but has not yet been heard by the public inquiry.

Last month, an inquiry expert, Dr John Duncan Glover, concluded that the blaze probably began in the Hotpoint FF175BP in the kitchen of Flat 16.

Mr Menon said: "The inquiry must set the record straight and unequivocally declare Mr Kebede bears no responsibility indirectly or directly for the outbreak of fire in his kitchen, its spread and its fatal consequences."

A total of 72 people died as a result of the fire on June 14 last year.