Who is Simon Dudley – Nigel Farage’s sacked housing chief with historical past of controversy
Former Tory council leader Simon Dudley – who defected to Reform this year – was at the centre of a storm when he demanded action on beggars ahead of Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018
Reform UK’s sacked housing chief Simon Dudley with former PM Theresa May, who condemned remarks he made in 2018(Image: Twitter)
Less than a month after being named as Nigel Farage’s housing chief, Simon Dudley’s political career is in tatters after horrendous remarks about the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
The former Tory council leader’s appointment as Reform UK’s housing spokesman on March 10 was hailed as a breakthrough by the Reform hierarchy. Mr Farage’s number two, Richard Tice, enthused: “He knows how to get projects moving. That is exactly what we need.”
But his sick remark that “everyone dies in the end” when talking about safety regulation following the Grenfell fire – a preventable tragedy which claimed 72 lives – was his downfall. Mr Dudley, whose previous roles include chairing an affordable housing provider, was removed by Mr Farage as fury grew over his comments.
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No stranger to controversy, he sparked an outcry as Conservative leader of Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council, when he called for “aggressive begging” to be tackled ahead of Harry and Meghan’s wedding. He said street begging caused a hostile atmosphere for tourists, adding it could present Windsor in a “sadly unfavourable light” on the big day. More than 100,000 people signed a petition condemning the remark, and then-PM Theresa May said in January 2018: “I don’t agree with the comments that the leader of the council has made.”
Like the party leader, Mr Dudley’s background was in finance and banking, with a 30 year career including work at HSBC, Svenska Handelsbanken and Citigroup Global Markets. He also worked on the £16billion purchase of Heathrow Airport Holdings in 2006.
But it was his spell at Homes England – the government’s housing and regeneration agency – that helped secure his place at Mr Farage’s top table.
He worked at the agency between 2017 and 2021. This included stints as senior independent director and then interim chairman between summer 2019 and autumn of 2020. Mr Dudley went on to be named by then-Housing Minister Chris Pincher as chairman of the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation – an organisation set up in 2015 to oversee housing and infrastructure in Ebbsfleet Valley, Kent.
He was charged with creating a new garden city with more than 2,000 homes – of which 35% were to be affordable. Mr Dudley also chaired Square Roots – an affordable housing provider set up by residential developer London Square – from 2021 to 2024.
On top of that he is on the advisory board of right-wing housing campaign group Build for Britain. In February he announced he was defecting from the Tories to Reform, lashing out at his former party. He said in a social media video announcing the switch: “For decades, politicians in Westminster have made housing less affordable… The housing crisis is making everyone poorer and it didn’t happen by accident.”
But the move did not go down well with the Conservatives, with the group’s local leader, Sally Coneron, telling the Maidenhead Advertiser: “On behalf of Conservative councillors and members across the Royal Borough, I can only echo Kemi Badenoch’s words: the Conservatives are learning from the mistakes of the past and [Mr Dudley is] Nigel’s problem now.”
His sacking came after he told Inside Housing magazine: “Sadly, you know, everyone dies in the end. It’s just how you go, right?” Relatives of those who died voiced their fury at the crass comment.
In an interview published on Wednesday, Mr Dudley claimed that building safety regulations introduced in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire were an example of “regulation which is not working”. Grenfell United, which represents many of the families bereaved by the fire as well as survivors, said the comments were “not just insensitive” but “deeply dehumanising”.
In a statement the group said: “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. 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. Everyone deserves the right to a safe home. But this attitude clearly shows Simon Dudley is not the man to ensure that happens.”
Mr Farage told a press conference that Mr Dudley is no longer a spokesman, describing his words as “deeply inappropriate”. Asked whether Mr Dudley would be sacked, Mr Farage replied: “That’s already happened.”
