The chief executive of Kensington and Chelsea council has been forced to quit his £187,000-a-year post after a flood of criticism over the handling of the Grenfell Tower disaster.

Nicholas Holgate said Sajid Javid, the Communities and Local Government Secretary, had “required the leader of the council to seek my resignation” on Tuesday.

Cambridge-educated career civil servant Mr Holgate added in a statement that he would have been a “distraction” if he had stayed in his post after the “heart-breaking tragedy”, which left at least 79 feared dead.