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Keir Starmer has criticized the shadow justice secretary's statements about not seeing another white face in parts of Birmingham, suggesting the politician was difficult to regard credibly.

Leadership Campaign Accusations

The prime minister implied that Jenrick's observations were linked to a stealth Conservative bid for leadership and said 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.

Jenrick has been accused of fuelling a fire of toxic nationalism after he doubled down on his remarks despite criticism from figures including the ex-Tory mayor of the region, the former mayor.

Local Response and Support

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

• Street had stated to BBC Newsnight the remarks were incorrect and portrayed Handsworth as a highly cohesive community.
• I think that what Andy Street said was right, 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 no issue with noting realities.

However, she added on the program: 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 statements, informing a Politico fringe event that they were phrases I would have avoided.

Jenrick repeatedly informed journalists at the event that he supported the remarks 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, Jenrick said it was an absolutely disgraceful and ridiculous inquiry.

Original Statements

In his original remarks, Jenrick 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.