Keir Starmer Criticizes Robert Jenrick's Handsworth Remarks as Difficult to Accept.

The Prime Minister has condemned the shadow justice secretary's remarks about not seeing another white face in areas of Handsworth, stating the politician was difficult to regard credibly.

Political Ambitions Accusations

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

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

Jenrick has been accused of fuelling a wave of divisive sentiment after he reiterated his complaint despite criticism from figures including the ex-Tory mayor of the region, Andy Street.

Local Rejection and Defense

Starmer, who avoided directly addressing the comments, said he had supported Street's objections of the MP.

• The former mayor had told BBC Newsnight the remarks were wrong and portrayed the area as a very integrated place.
• I think that what Andy Street said was right, the prime minister said. Having served as mayor for an extended period, Andy Street possesses deep familiarity with the locality.

Kemi Badenoch, defended him, saying he had made a factual statement and that there was no issue with noting realities.

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.

Party Divisions

Mel Stride became the initial high-ranking Conservative to disassociate from Jenrick over the statements, telling a Politico fringe event that they were not words that I would have used.

The MP repeatedly told interviewers at the conference that he supported the comments and did not resile from them as it would be wrong to end a crucial discussion that we have to have as a country about integration.

When a Sky News journalist put it to him that his comments could encourage extremist organizations, he said it was an completely unacceptable and absurd inquiry.

Original Statements

In his initial comments, the MP said Handsworth was among the least cohesive locations I have visited. Specifically, in the 90 minutes he was filming news there he 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.