THE Prime Minister has visited Bolton to meet with the emergency services and university students and staff following the fire at the Cube apartment block.

His visit came after Greater Manchester politicians called on the Prime Minster to step up resources to remove cladding from buildings and protect people from similar fires following the incident.

Boris Johnson spent time this afternoon with members of the fire service at the scene of the blaze at student accommodation in Bradshawgate.

There he spoke with firefighters and assistant chief fire officer Dave Keelan to discuss the situation and their response.

He then went over to the University of Bolton to speak with staff and students and find out about the actions and support offered by university in the aftermath.

Earlier today Mr Johnson tweeted: "My thoughts are with all those affected by the serious fire in Bolton last night.

"Thank you to emergency services for your brave response.

"I have spoken with AFC Tony Hunter who is in charge at the scene, and we are doing everything to ensure they have all the required support."

However, at a press conference earlier today, The Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, called on the Prime Minister to give families living in tower blocks "peace of mind" by removing cladding following the blaze.

This was echoed by Councillor Paul Dennet, chairman of the Greater Manchester High Rise Task Force and Mayor of Salford, said he would be lobbying the Government for more money to help to remove flammable cladding to avoid future incidents.

He said: "At the moment we have a bit of a cladding lottery. Government has made resources available for ACM. This building is high pressure laminate so we will be asking Government for more funds and more money to really deal with what is an industrial crisis that the UK faces at the moment in terms of cladding on buildings.

"There is a lot of work to be done and we will be taking learning from today."