Handsworth Birmingham: Robert Jenrick expressed concern about ‘not seeing another white face’ in neighbourhood
Robert Jenrick complained about visiting an area of Birmingham where he “didn’t see another white face” and said it was not the kind of country he wanted to live in.
Jenrick made the comments, which were recorded, during a dinner at the Aldridge-Brownhills Conservative Association dinner on 14 March after he had recorded a video for GB News about litter in the suburb. He told the dinner: “I went to Handsworth in Birmingham the other day to do a video on litter and it was absolutely appalling.
“It’s as close as I’ve come to a slum in this country. But the other thing I noticed there was that it was one of the worst integrated places I’ve ever been to. In fact, in the hour and a half I was filming news there I didn’t see another white face.
“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. That’s not the right way we want to live as a country.”
A spokesperson for Jenrick declined to comment initially. But later on Monday, Jenrick defended his comments, saying: “Six separate government reports over 20 years have highlighted the problem of parallel communities and called for a frank and honest conversation about the issue.
“The situation is no better today. Unlike other politicians, I won’t shy away from this issue. We have to integrate communities if we are to be a united country.”
Khalid Mahmood, the former Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, which covers Handsworth, said Jenrick was “stoking divisions” and it was “absolutely not” possible to say whether an area was integrated by looking at people in the street.
He said: “I was immensely privileged for 23 years to serve that area and they are fantastic people of all colours, creeds, religions and no religion at all in Perry Barr and Handsworth. I think it’s very, very negative.
“These people have struggled day in day out to make ends meet under the Conservative government. We’ve got a huge amount of HMOs [houses of multiple occupancy] in the area and the bin strike by the local authority hasn’t helped either. He’s playing on that. For the comment that he’s not seen a white face in Handsworth, that’s just ridiculous. There are all sorts of people, white, black, other sorts of people of all heritages and cultures.”