Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick has affirmed he does not regret remarks made in March concerning the Handsworth area of Birmingham, which he described as “one of the worst-integrated places” he had ever encountered.
In a recording, reportedly from a dinner and published by The Guardian, Jenrick stated that he did not observe “another white face” during a 90-minute period spent in Handsworth while filming a video on litter.
On Tuesday, Jenrick stated that he stands by his comments and would not “shy away” from addressing integration issues.
Labour West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker characterized Jenrick’s comments as racist – a claim Jenrick vehemently denies. Labour Party Chair Anna Turley stated that the remarks reduced individuals “to the colour of their skin.”
Jenrick’s team does not dispute the authenticity of the recording, which was reportedly made at the Aldridge-Brownhills Conservative Association.
In the recording, he further stated: “That’s not the kind of country I want to live in. I want to live in a country where people are properly integrated.
“It’s not about the colour of your skin, or your faith, of course it isn’t. But I want people to be living alongside each other, not parallel lives.”
When questioned on BBC Radio 5 Live on Tuesday about whether he regretted the comments, Jenrick responded: “No, not at all, and I won’t shy away from these issues.”
He stated that he mentioned skin colour “because it’s incredibly important we have a fully integrated society.”
“It’s a very dangerous place if we have a country where people are living in ghettoised communities, where people are not living together side-by-side in harmonious communities.
“We’ve seen the damage that can do in our society,” he said.
“We’ve had major failures of integration in this country for my whole lifetime.
“We’ve got to fix it, and that’s the comment I was making in Birmingham the other day.”
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch stated that while she was unaware of the recording’s context, Jenrick may have been “making an observation” regarding his visit to the area.
“I wasn’t there so I can’t say how many faces he saw, but the point is that there are many people in our country who are not integrating,” she said.
Parker expressed that he was “appalled” and “disgusted” by Jenrick’s comments in the recording.
When asked if he believed the remarks were racist, he told BBC Radio WM: “I do. Because he’s set out intentionally to draw on a particular issue – people’s colour – to identify the point he wanted to make.”
Turley echoed his comments, stating that in his remarks, Jenrick “reduces people to the colour of their skin and judges his own level of comfort by whether there are other white faces around.”
Integration within communities has been a prominent theme at the Conservative conference this week, with discussions centered on responding to the threat posed by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
In an interview with the BBC coinciding with the conference, Badenoch stated that the government must enhance its efforts to promote integration.
Commenting on Jenrick’s remarks earlier, Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho said on X: “We’re a majority white country.”
She added: “If you walk through an area and don’t see a single white face, it is a sign that integration has failed.”
Meanwhile, when asked about the comments, Shadow Housing Secretary James Cleverly told 5 Live that “segregated communities living close to each other but not mixing with each other is not healthy.”
However, public figures from within the region have disputed Jenrick’s comments, with former Conservative Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street telling BBC Newsnight Jenrick was “wrong.”
Street, who described Handsworth as “a very integrated place,” also rejected Jenrick’s recorded comment that Handsworth was “the closest I’ve come to a slum in this country.”
Handsworth’s Independent MP Ayoub Khan said Jenrick’s remarks were “not only wildly false but also incredibly irresponsible.”
In a letter to Jenrick, the Bishop of Birmingham, Dr. Michael Volland, stated that the comments had the potential to “stir up division” and “feed into a harmful narrative that provides fuel for a fire of toxic nationalism.”
On the ground, reaction to the story has been mixed. On Tuesday morning, the BBC spoke to a number of Handsworth residents who expressed different perspectives about Jenrick’s comments.
Rani Rawji, who works for a business improvement district in the area, said it had Christians, Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus working, living and shopping happily together.
She said: “Everybody’s happy. We don’t seem to have an issue.”
However, Mariaj Khan agreed with the description of the area as a slum and said he was not offended by the MP’s comments because he felt they were true.
Mr. Khan said he only saw Asian and black people, adding: “I never saw a white face around here.”
He said that there were white people in the area but they tended not to be British.
Additional reporting by Tanya Gupta
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