Nottinghamshire's only Conservative MP said there needs to be a 'frank and honest' conversation about the issue
11:30, 07 Oct 2025
Nottinghamshire's only Conservative MP has defended comments in which he complained about not seeing "another white face" for an hour and a half in Birmingham.
Robert Jenrick, re-elected as Newark MP in the 2024 general election, said the Handsworth area of Birmingham was "one of the worst-integrated places" he had ever been to.
The recording was made during a Conservative association dinner in March and it has just been published by The Guardian.
Mr Jenrick says in the recording: "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."
Handsworth's Independent MP Ayoub Khan told the Guardian that Mr Jenrick had "misrepresented a storied and diverse community, awkwardly distorting the product of an all-out bin strike to fit his culture-warrior narrative filled with far-right clichés".
Former Conservative Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street told BBC Newsnight: "Putting it bluntly, Robert is wrong.
"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."
Defending the comments after the recording was published on Monday (October 6), Mr Jenrick said: "Six separate government reports over 20 years have highlighted the problem of parallel communities and called for a frank and honest conversation about the issue.
"The situation is no better today. Unlike other politicians, I won't shy away from this issue. We have to integrate communities if we are to be a united country."