Jeremy Corbyn doubles down on plans to seize empty houses in Kensington to house Grenfell Tower fire victims
Labour leader also criticised the official response to the tragedy and the lack of immediate accommodation made available
JEREMY Corbyn has doubled down today on his call for empty homes in leafy Kensington to be seized to house victims of the Grenfell Tower fire.
The Labour leader urged the Government to consider requisitioning or using compulsory purchase orders for flats that are deliberately kept vacant, in a process known as land-banking.
Mr Corbyn told ITV's Peston on Sunday: "Occupy it, compulsory purchase it, requisition it - there's a lot of things you can do.
"But can't we as a society just think, all of us, it's all very well putting our arms around people during the crisis but homelessness is rising, the housing crisis is getting worse and my point was quite a simple one.
"In an emergency, you have to bring all assets to the table in order to deal with that crisis and that's what I think we should be doing in this case."
Mr Corbyn also criticised the official response to the deadly tragedy, saying people should have been offered immediate accommodation similar to travellers who are offered hotels when their planes are delayed.
And he questioned why people had been left stranded when airlines are able to find accommodation for delayed travellers.
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Mr Corbyn said: "Every day at Heathrow, planes get delayed. Hundreds of people get stranded at airports all over the world.
"Hotels are found for them immediately, they are sorted out. 400 or so people, still most of them have not got somewhere decent, safe or secure to stay in.
"Somehow or other, it seems to be beyond the wit of the public services to deal with the crisis facing a relatively small number of people in a country of 65 million."
Mr Corbyn also defended Theresa May, who has come under criticism for her response to the tragedy, saying: "I think everybody cares to an extent, some to a deeper extent and some show empathy in a different way to others.
"But the real issue is not about what we as individuals feel, Theresa May, me, anybody else, it's what those people are going through."
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell backed calls for requisitioning, saying he would have done "whatever necessary" to house families displaced by the fire.
Speaking to Sky News' Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Mr McDonnell said: "People would not be living in high-rise blocks, unsafe conditions and some of them very poor quality, if we didn't have the housing crisis and part of that housing crisis is as a result of allowing housing particularly in London for use for speculative gain rather than for housing need.
"Now what Jeremy said is if we've got a crisis like that, we need urgent measures and if there are empty properties nearby, they should be used and councils have the power to do that already."
RAGE DAY 'WILL HIJACK OUR GRIEF'
By Chris Pollard
POSTERS calling for a “day of rage” were plastered around Grenfell Tower yesterday.
The fliers urged Kensington residents to “shut down London” and bring down the Government during a protest march on Wednesday.
They were put up by the Movement for Justice By Any Means Necessary, which suggested people “walk out of school, take the day off, call in sick or strike”.
The posters were even pinned to shrines near to the scene of the fire.
They referred to working-class people “murdered by this rotten capitalist system”.
The call was rejected by residents, who put up posters promoting #PeaceForLatimer.
Volunteers’ organiser Howard Taylor said: “They do not want their grief hijacked.”