If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is this image of Theresa May saying? She’s pictured with artist Damel Carayol and his painting of Grenfell Tower, which she would obviously like to see burning like its inspiration. Shame on her.

Theresa May can be false in many places – but not, it seems, in the expression on her face.

When artist Damel Carayol presented her with his painting of Grenfell Tower, captioned “Eyesore!! Final Straw”, she could not hide her distaste.

The 55-year-old artist from north London lost family members in the fire, including his niece Khadija Saye, a fellow artist who died shortly before her work was to be exhibited for the first time.

After hearing reports a few days after the fire that the flammable cladding that turned the building into a raging inferno was attached for aesthetic reasons, he told Sky News, “That tipped me over the edge… it was pure anger. I didn’t plan or think; I just grabbed my one canvas that was left.

“My anger just poured out through the paint… it was pure anger and sweat and swearing and everything.”

A message on the painting reads: “To the Prime Minister Mrs Theresa May. Given from a good place with a righteous message. We all hope and pray that nothing like this will ever happen again.”

Mr Carayol said he presented it as a gift to Mrs May, who called it “powerful”.

But you can tell from the photo of her, taken with the artist, that she didn’t want it.

She doesn’t want anything to do with that nasty Grenfell Tower affair.

And a group of more than a dozen families was left with exactly that impression after meeting Mrs May last week to call for a diverse panel with decision-making powers to be set up as part of the inquiry into the blaze.

Their call came in advance of an Opposition Day debate on Wednesday, discussing a petition backed by rap artist Stormzy (you may remember his Brit Awards performance berating Mrs May), asking Mrs May to improve public trust in the inquiry.

But one of the representatives at the meeting last Thursday described it as a “total let-down”.

Nabil Choucair, who lost his mother, sister, brother-in-law and their three children, told Mrs May he had no confidence in her.

He said Mrs May responded to the group’s request and petition by saying she would “reflect on it”. But she left him with an entirely different impression.

“It’s like we’re talking and it’s going in but then out the other ear,” he told Sky News.

“It feels really very painful, very hard and having to go through it and keep going through it – it’s enough that we are all suffering… but we have to go and ask for this panel which she should clearly have understood from the first place… she’s caused a lot of pain and more suffering unnecessarily.”

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