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Keir Starmer has criticized the shadow justice secretary's statements about the lack of white faces in parts of Birmingham, suggesting the MP was hard to take seriously.

Political Ambitions Accusations

Starmer suggested that Jenrick's comments were linked to a covert Conservative bid for leadership and asserted he did not believe they accurately reflected the neighborhood of Handsworth.

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 accused of fuelling a wave of divisive sentiment after he doubled down on his complaint despite backlash from individuals including the former Conservative mayor of the region, Andy Street.

Community Response and Defense

Starmer, who avoided directly addressing the comments, said he had agreed with Andy Street's criticisms of Jenrick.

• Street had told the media the comments were wrong and portrayed Handsworth as a very integrated place.
• I think that what Andy Street said was right, Starmer said. Having served as mayor for an extended period, Andy Street possesses deep familiarity with the locality.

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

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.

Party Divisions

Mel Stride became the first senior Tory to disassociate from his colleague over the statements, informing a Politico fringe event that they were phrases I would have avoided.

Jenrick repeatedly informed interviewers at the event that he supported the remarks and did not retract 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 encourage extremist organizations, Jenrick said it was an absolutely disgraceful and ridiculous inquiry.

Original Remarks

In his initial comments, the MP said Handsworth was among the least cohesive locations I have visited. Specifically, in the 90 minutes he was recording in the area he observed no other white individuals.

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.