‘Putting it bluntly, Robert is wrong’
Hardline Tory MP Robert Jenrick has been criticised over his comments claiming he “didn’t see another white face” during a 90-minute visit to a Birmingham neighbourhood.
In March, Jenrick said in a leaked audio recording that Handsworth in Birmingham was “one of the worst integrated places I’ve ever been to”, suggesting that this was because he hadn’t seen “another white face” during his visit.
In the recording, he went on to say: “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.”
In an interview with Sky News journalist Kamali Melbourne played the recording to Jenrick, and then asked: “I do wonder what integrated means for you and I wonder how you can judge that a person isn’t integrated by the colour of their skin being there for 90 minutes.”
Jenrick replied saying he was “very clear that it’s not about the colour of your skin or your faith.”
Melbourne countered this, reminding Jenrick of his comment: “You didn’t see any white faces”.
“The point I was making is we want all people to be living side by side. We can’t have particular communities in this country where there is a heavy preponderance of one group of another. We want people to be living in mixed communities.”
Jenrick told Melbourne what he didn’t want “was growing communities where people are living essentially ‘ghettoised’ lives”.
The Sky journalist added: “You’ll know that that kind of language does give support for groups on the far-right who don’t want to see black and brown people living in this country.”
Jenrick then turned on the journalist, calling his comment “absolutely disgraceful and ridiculous”. The shadow justice secretary said that “journalists like yourself” give rise to the far-right by “shutting down legitimate and fair debate”.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has defended Jenrick’s comments, saying he made a “factual statement” and there was “nothing wrong with making observations”.
However, she said she doesn’t think the debate should be focused on “how many faces people see on the street and what they look like”.
Former Conservative mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street tore apart Jenrick’s comments on Newsnight last night.
Street said: “Putting it bluntly, Robert is wrong. It is a place I know very well, Handsworth, it’s come a hell of a long way in the 40 years since the last civil disturbances there, and it’s actually a very integrated place.”
“If you go along the main streets there you will see Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, a lot of them of African and Caribbean origin, and of course white people as well.”
Asked about Jenrick’s claim that he had seen some of the worst slums ever in Handsworth, Street replied: “I think he was trying to make a point which I don’t agree with.
“If you go to the schools in Handsworth, I’ve been to a number recently, you see incredible hope, optimism and people taking part in education which is based around British values and thinking about how they can make a contribution to the future of their region, their city and their area. That is not a definition of a slum.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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