PRESSURE mounted on PM Theresa May yesterday to sack Grenfell inquiry chair Sir Martin Moore-Bick as a black lawyers’ group called for him to go.

BME Lawyers 4 Grenfell, a coalition of BME groups and residents, said his appointment lacked credibility, urging a new chair “with a professional history and experience of appreciating the needs of social housing in this diverse community all too often ignored by the wealthiest borough in the country.”

Mr Moore-Black has come under fire after stating that he would be “pretty well limited” to the causes of the fire as well as decision he made as an appeal court judge on social housing.

The main Justice 4 Grenfell group has already said it would boycott the inquiry unless its terms were widened and Mr Moore-Bick was given the heave-ho.

Co-ordinator Sue Caro said: “There is no confidence in the process. He has already said he doesn’t think it is going to satisfy what residents want, why set up an inquiry that you know is not going to do what is required before you’ve even started?”

And yesterday black and minority ethnic lawyers groups pointed to the Macpherson inquiry into the 1993 murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, which exposed institutional racism within the Met Police.

“The Macpherson inquiry was ultimately about more than the tragic murder of a young black man and, similarly, this inquiry will be about more than the events of one fateful night,” said Association of Muslim Lawyers president Ismet Rawat.

“The Grenfell community cannot begin to process its huge trauma or even countenance healing when it is being repeatedly lied to, misrepresented, and treated abhorrently. There must be accountability.”

And Society of Asian Lawyers president Ranjit Sond argued that the Lawrence inquiry and Lord Scarman report into the Brixton riots only managed to gain the trust of the local community by “conducting a detailed consultation … with a diverse panel of advisers who helped them develop the trust of the victims and survivors.”

BME Lawyers 4 Grenfell said it would consider commencing judicial review proceedings unless the terms of the inquiry are widened.

Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said the inquiry was “just the beginning of the process” and Mr Moore-Black should be “given time” to speak to families and survivors.

He urged tenants illegally subletting rooms in the Grenfell Tower block to come forward so that authorities could establish the true death toll. He said they would not be prosecuted.

More than 100 long-term offers of accommodation have been made to survivors but only eight accepted — which the Grenfell Fire Response Team’s Barbara Brownlee attributed to people still grieving for loved ones and coping with family members in hospital.