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Reform UK’s housing spokesperson has been sacked from his role after he described the Grenfell Tower fire as a “tragedy” but said that “everyone dies in the end”.

Keir Starmer had called on Nigel Farage to sack Simon Dudley, a former head of Homes England, after comments which were condemned by Grenfell families and others.

Dudley announced in February that he was joining Reform, as Nigel Farage said he was planning to bring more “experts” onboard to advise the party.

He was embroiled in controversy on Wednesday night after he gave an interview to Inside Housing magazine in which he described building safety regulations introduced after the 2017 Grenfell tragedy as “regulation which is not working”.

After Reform initially appeared to stand by Dudley, Farage said at a press conference to announce Reform policy on pensions that Dudley had “gone” as a result of his “deeply shocking” comments.

Dudley’s comments overshadowed the press conference on Thursday, which was called to announce a new policy on pensions.

After Reform put out a statement on Wednesday night seeking to defend Dudley, Farage said on Thursday he had been “dealt with” and was no longer a party spokesperson.

The Reform leader sought to put distance between himself and the appointment, saying it had been the responsibility of Richard Tice, his deputy leader.

Farage said of Dudley: “While he has a track record in building new towns and houses and all of that [he] clearly acted yesterday in a pretty hurtful and insulting way to an awful lot of people.”

An hour before Farage’s comments, Tice had retweeted Dudley’s attempt to defend his comments.

Dudley is the second frontline Reform figure – after its Hampshire and the Solent mayoral candidate, Chris Parry – to be removed from his position after controversial comments in the past month. Parry had described members of a Jewish neighbourhood watch group as “cosplayers” and likened them to “Islamists on horseback”.

The bereaved families and survivors group Grenfell United, had described Dudley’s comments as insensitive and deeply dehumanising. “Our loved ones did not simply ‘die’. They were failed. They were trapped in their homes, in a building that should have been safe, in a fire that should never have happened. Reducing their deaths to an inevitability strips away the truth: this was preventable,” the group said in a statement.

“To speak about Grenfell in this way is to erase responsibility. It suggests this was just fate, just ‘how it goes’, rather than the result of years of ignored warnings, poor decisions, and a failure to value the lives of residents, and is deeply offensive and ill informed.”

The prime minister joined in condemnation of Dudley on Thursday, describing his comments as shameful, as Grenfell families also criticised them. “Nigel Farage should do the decent thing and sack him,” Starmer said on X.

Dudley responded to the outcry on Thursday morning, using a post on X to say: “Grenfell was an utter tragedy and quite rightly prompted a wholesale review and tightening of fire regulations.

“I said it was a tragedy in my interview with Inside Housing and in no shape or form am I belittling that disaster or the huge loss of life. It must never happen again. I reiterate that, and am sorry if it was not sufficiently clear.”

His remarks were also criticised by the Fire Brigades Union, whose general secretary, Steve Wright, described them as disgusting and shocking. “Yet again, Reform has shown just how unfit it is for power with this insult to the families of those who lost their lives at Grenfell,” he said.