Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick has doubled down on comments complaining that he “didn’t see another white face” during a visit to an area of Birmingham, saying he “won’t shy away” from issues of integration.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch defended him, saying she did not agree with accusations of racism and that there is “nothing wrong with making observations”.
But former Tory mayor Andy Street said he was “wrong” about Handsworth, while the Labour Party said his comments “cross a red line”.
The Guardian obtained a recording of Mr Jenrick making the comments about a 90-minute visit to Handsworth earlier this year, before adding: “That’s not the kind of country I want to live in.”
Speaking at an Aldridge-Brownhills Conservative Association dinner on March 14, he went on to say it was “not about the colour of your skin or your faith”, but about people “living alongside each other”.
Asked if he had any regrets about his comments, Mr Jenrick told BBC Radio 5 Live on Tuesday: “No, not at all and I won’t shy away from these issues.”
He said he had brought up skin colour “because it’s incredibly important that we have a fully integrated society regardless of the colour of their skin or the faith that they abide by”.
He added: “I think 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 that can do in society so it’s incredibly important that we resolve this.”
He linked the terror attack in north Manchester last week with a lack of integration in comments to Sky News.
He said: “Look, just the other day here in Manchester, we saw a man who had lived in this country for 30 years, but was clearly not integrated into our society, clearly did not share British values, committing an appalling terrorist attack by going to a synagogue and killing British Jews.
“That is, at the extreme level, where failures of integration lead, and that’s why we’ve got to have a debate about this, and not have it shut down whenever anyone puts their head above the parapet and talks about it publicly.”
The leaked comments come after Mrs Badenoch told her party’s conference she would not allow anyone on the right to tell her children “they do not belong in their own country”.
She defended her shadow minister, saying she would take the Guardian report “with a pinch of salt”.
The Tory leader told BBC Breakfast: “But the fact is, these are recordings out of context. I don’t know what was being discussed before he said that.
“But in and of itself, it’s a factual statement. If he said he didn’t see another white face, he might have been making an observation. There’s nothing wrong with making observations.
“But what he and I both agree with is that there are not enough people integrating. There are many people who are creating separate communities.”
She added: “I heard that one of the MPs of that area was accusing him of racism. I completely disagree with that. I want to make that very clear.
“In fact, I’m quite worried about these sectarian MPs who’ve been elected in Birmingham, very, very divisive politics, people who are more interested in talking about Gaza than what’s happening in the UK.”
Mr Jenrick’s comments came several days after he filmed a video on litter in Handsworth and he reportedly said the area was “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.”
Labour Party chairwoman Anna Turley said Mr Jenrick’s comments clearly conflict with his party leader’s earlier words.
The MP for Redcar said: “This weekend Kemi Badenoch said she stood against a politics that ‘reduces people to categories and then pits them against each other’.
“Robert Jenrick in his leaked comments reduces people to the colour of their skin and judges his own level of comfort by whether there are other white faces around.
“His comments clearly cross a red line that his leader has rightly laid down.”
Andy Street, the Conservative former mayor of the West Midlands, said Mr Jenrick was “wrong” in his comments about Handsworth.
He told BBC Newsnight: “Putting it bluntly, Robert is wrong. It’s 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.”
He added: “You see incredible hope, optimism and people taking part in education which is based around British values and thinking 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.”
