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The Prime Minister has criticized the shadow justice secretary's remarks about not seeing another white face in areas of Handsworth, stating the MP was hard to take seriously.

Leadership Campaign Claims

The prime minister implied that Jenrick's comments were part of a covert Tory bid for leadership and asserted he did not believe they accurately reflected the neighborhood of the Birmingham district.

It’s quite hard to take anything that Robert Jenrick says seriously; he’s clearly still running his leadership campaign.

The shadow justice secretary has been criticized for igniting a fire of toxic nationalism after he reiterated his complaint despite backlash from figures including the former Conservative mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street.

Local Rejection and Support

Starmer, who did not directly engage the comments, said he had supported Andy Street's objections of Jenrick.

• Street had stated to the media the remarks were wrong and described Handsworth as a highly cohesive community.
• In my view, Andy Street's comments were accurate, the prime minister said. Andy Street obviously was mayor for a long time and knows the area very very well.

Kemi Badenoch, defended him, saying he had made a truthful observation and that there was nothing wrong with making observations.

However, she added on BBC Breakfast: I don’t think this is where the debate should be, about how many faces people see on the street and what they look like.

Internal Disagreements

The shadow chancellor became the initial high-ranking Conservative to disassociate from his colleague over the comments, telling a Politico fringe event that they were phrases I would have avoided.

The MP repeatedly informed interviewers at the conference that he stood by the remarks and did not resile from them as it would be wrong to shut down an important debate that we have to have as a country about social cohesion.

When a reporter suggested that his remarks could encourage far-right groups, Jenrick said it was an completely unacceptable and absurd inquiry.

Original Remarks

In his initial comments, the MP said Handsworth was one of the worst integrated places I’ve ever been to. Specifically, in the 90 minutes he was recording in the area he didn’t see another white face.

This is not the nation I desire to reside in. I prefer a country with proper integration. Skin color or religion is not the issue—naturally not. However, I advocate for people coexisting together, not leading separate existences. That is not the ideal lifestyle for our country.