Rugby

Michael Gove calls on Ulster to reconsider Kingspan sponsorship deal

Ulster acknowledge ‘existing active review’ of relationship amid Grenfell Tower inquiry

Kingpsan see their name on Ulster’s jersey and home stadium in Belfast. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Nathan Johns
Wed Dec 22 2021 - 19:30

UK secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities Michael Gove has written to Ulster asking them to reconsider their sponsorship deal with Kingspan.

The Irish building materials firm had some of their products used at Grenfell Tower, where 72 people tragically lost their lives in a fire in 2017.

An inquiry is currently still being conducted into the events of that day.

Kingspan are also Ulster’s jersey sponsor and hold the naming rights to the Kingspan Stadium in Belfast.

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In December 2020, Kingspan’s former managing director Peter Wilson stood down after it emerged that the firm used out of date fire tests to market materials. Communications between company employees have also suggested an awareness of these issues and a lack of resultant action.

Kingspan has defended itself by saying that its K15 insulation product made up only 5 per cent of the tower’s insulation and that it was used without the firm’s recommendation.

In January of this year, Grenfell United, a campaign organisation made up of victims and survivors of the fire wrote to Ulster asking them to consider their sponsorship deal with Kingspan. The province responded citing the length of their relationship with Kingspan and legal obligations that restrained what they could say while the public inquiry is still ongoing.

Earlier this month, Gove and other UK politicians lent their support behind a campaign that called on Mercedes F1 to terminate their sponsorship deal with Kingspan, which they swiftly did after team principal Toto Wolff met with Grenfell United.

The Conservative politician has now called on Ulster to do the same:

“I know that some members of the bereaved and survivor community wrote to you in January asking you to reconsider your own sponsorship agreement with Kingspan. I wanted to write to you to set out my support for this position.

“I would ask you to consider the evidence that has been presented to the inquiry before deciding whether continuing with this arrangement is consistent with the values of your club and the sport more broadly.

“I do not believe that the public across these islands will feel that it is right that a community club should risk its reputation by partnering with a company whose practices have been so seriously called into question.”

An Ulster spokeswoman provided the following comment to the Irish Times:

“We can confirm that [chief executive] Jonny Petrie received a letter from the secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities, Michael Gove, yesterday afternoon in relation to our partnership with Kingspan. The information contained within will be considered as part of an existing active review, and we won’t be making any further comment at this time.”

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