The London Fire Brigade says it totally refutes the claims (Picture: PA: EPA: Getty)

Calls are growing for Baroness Doreen Lawrence to apologise after claiming that firefighters would have tried harder to save the victims of the Grenfell tragedy, if they were white.

Baroness Lawrence, whose 18-year-old son Stephen was murdered by a racist gang in south-east London in 1993, said she had ‘no doubt’ that racism was involved in the response to the Grenfell tragedy.

She told Channel 4 in an interview last week: ‘Had that been a block full of white people in there, they would have done everything to get them out as fast as possible and make sure that they do what they needed to do.



‘Nobody wanted to mention the word “race” in the whole thing. Cos when I saw the residents who lived in that block, to me it was under no doubt around the racism that existed at that time.’


A subsequent petition demanding she apologise has so far collected almost 35,000 signatures.

It claims Baroness Lawrence’s remarks were defamatory towards the ‘brave men and women of London fire brigade’.

Baroness Lawrence says she had ‘no doubt’ racism was involved in the response to the Grenfell tragedy (Picture: PA)

The London Fire Brigade says all firefighters to attend were ‘fully committed to rescuing as many people as possible’ (Picture: EPA)

It adds: ‘At great risk to themselves, they saved many lives which would have been lost without their intervention.’

The petition even claims that Baroness Lawrence should have her ‘honour removed’ and she should be ‘barred from public office’.

A London Fire Brigade spokesperson said: ‘We absolutely refute the claims made by Baroness Doreen Lawrence that there was any aspect of racism in our response to the Grenfell Tower fire or any other incident.

‘Every single one of the firefighters and officers who responded to the fire that night were fully committed to rescuing as many people as possible and put their own lives at risk to do so.’

Baroness Lawrence has been approached for comment.

Got a story for Metro.co.uk? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. For more stories like this, check our news page.