Robert Jenrick accused of fuelling ‘toxic nationalism’ with Birmingham claims

Robert Jenrick has been accused of fuelling a “fire of toxic nationalism” after he doubled down on his complaint about “not seeing another white face” in part of Birmingham.

The shadow justice secretary was criticised by politicians across the parties, local leaders and the bishop of Birmingham after the Guardian published his remarks from March.

At a Conservative dinner, Jenrick had complained of not seeing another white face in the neighbourhood of Handsworth and said it was not the kind of country he wanted to live in due to a lack of integration – before saying it was not about skin colour or faith.

David Lammy, the deputy prime minister and justice secretary, suggested Jenrick was judging people based on the colour of their skin, while Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, broke ranks by saying the remarks were “not words that I would have used”. Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, said it was racism.

The Right Rev Dr Michael Volland, the bishop of Birmingham, said the comments “have the potential to generate anxiety and stir up division and … can feed into a harmful narrative that provides fuel for a fire of toxic nationalism”.

Andy Street, the Conservative former mayor of the West Midlands, said Jenrick was wrong in saying the multi-ethnic neighbourhood of Handsworth was not integrated, while Labour’s Richard Parker, who succeeded Street as mayor, said he was “incredibly sad but also very angry”.

“Birmingham is a proud, diverse city built by generations from every background. We don’t separate people by the colour of their skin – and that’s what Jenrick has done here with his comments,” Parker said. “What also concerns me is that there were Conservative politicians in that room, from our region, and they didn’t speak up. Silence in the face of this kind of rhetoric is not leadership.”

Jenrick was repeatedly pressed over the comments on the day of his speech to the Conservative party conference.

In the remarks in March, Jenrick was recorded as saying: “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.”

On Tuesday he repeatedly told interviewers that he stood by the comments 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 integration.

When a Sky News journalist put it to him that his remarks could embolden far-right groups who did not want to see black and brown people living in the UK, Jenrick said it was “an absolutely disgraceful and ridiculous” question and accused the journalist of trying to silence debate about integration, which he said in itself could fuel extremism.

In an interview for the Telegraph’s Daily T podcast, Jenrick was pressed on whether he would complain that an all-white area was too monocultural, if he really was making a point about how society should be integrated and reflect the makeup of the country.

Jenrick replied: “The left do. Decolonise the countryside, decolonise the National Trust. The left do make those arguments … What I said is that it’s not about the colour of your skin or your faith. My point is that we have communities that do not reflect the breadth of the people who live in our country. That is self-evidently true.”

Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, defended Jenrick, saying he had made a “factual statement” and that there was “nothing wrong with making observations”. But she also told 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.”

Jenrick’s comments about Handsworth related to a video about litter and fly-tipping that he recorded for GB News. In the footage, he talks about being in Handsworth but is actually pictured walking down a street in nearby Aston. There are no interviews with any local people. A clip of flytipping in Aston put on Facebook by a Liberal Democrat councillor, Mumtaz Hussain, is also shown. Jenrick later went to interview residents in the Conservative area of Sutton Coldfield about flytipping.

Responding to Jenrick on Tuesday, Lammy said: “Unlike Robert Jenrick, the public knows Britishness isn’t about retreating into suspicion or judging people by the colour of their skin. It’s about pride in what we build and contribute together. While the Conservative party feeds off division and decline, Labour is delivering the patriotic renewal our country needs.”

Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, told LBC that Jenrick “has a lot of explaining to do”. She asked: “Is he suggesting that the colour of your skin makes you less British than someone else?”

Polanski, the Green party leader, went further, saying: “Jenrick could have visited Handsworth to listen to residents; he chose to pass through and judge them based on the colour of their skin. Instead of getting to know our nation of neighbours, he chose racism. The Tories, Reform and Labour want to divide us. The Greens say: enough.”