Keir Starmer has called on Nigel Farage to sack Reform’s new housing spokesperson after he described the Grenfell Tower fire as a “tragedy” but added that “everyone dies in the end”.

Simon Dudley, a former head of Homes England, announced in February that he was joining Reform, as Nigel Farage said he was planning to bring more “experts” onboard to advise the party.

However, the new Reform housing spokesperson was embroiled in controversy overnight 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”.

“That was a tragedy. It was a failure,” Dudley was quoted as saying, when asked if the fire was a warning. “Sadly, you know, everyone dies in the end. It’s just how you go, right?” he added.

“Extracting Grenfell from the statistics, actually people dying in house fires is rare. Many, many more people die on the roads driving cars – but we’re not making cars illegal, so why are we stopping houses being built?”

The prime minister joined in condemnation of Dudley, 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.

Grenfell United, ​a bereaved families and survivors group, 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.

Grenfell Next of Kin, another group, said: “The death of our parents, partners, children, siblings, grandparents and grandchildren in the most horrific circumstances was gross negligent manslaughter, NOT fate.”

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.”

Dudley went on to refer to an announcement by Berkley Group, London’s biggest housebuilder, that it will stop buying up land for development because of what it described as “unprecedented” increases in costs and regulation.

“My concern is the introduction of numerous measures that do nothing to protect life and are throttling housebuilding,” he added.

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.

A Reform UK spokesperson said: “Simon’s comments on Grenfell reflected his broader point that the regulatory pendulum has swung too far in response to the tragedy. As he explained, there is a fine balance between overregulation – which can slow the delivery of new homes – and ensuring that more homes are built safely without too much red tape.”

Dudley, a former Conservative supporter who has experience in international banking and held roles at HSBC and other companies, was chair of the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation until July last year, tasked with overseeing the creation of a new town. He had been brought into the Tory party’s treasurers department as recently as October by the party chair, Kevin Hollinrake.

After joining Reform, he said: “For too long, the two main parties have failed to deliver housing for Brits. They’ve pursued a disastrous combination of extreme levels of immigration with a severe lack of new good quality homes.”