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The Prime Minister has criticized Robert Jenrick's remarks about not seeing another white face in areas of Birmingham, suggesting the politician was hard to take seriously.

Leadership Campaign Accusations

Starmer suggested that his comments were linked to a covert Conservative leadership campaign and said he did not believe they painted a true picture 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 wave of divisive sentiment after he doubled down on his remarks despite backlash from figures including the ex-Tory mayor of the region, the former mayor.

Local Rejection and Support

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

• Street had told BBC Newsnight the remarks were incorrect and portrayed the area 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, supported him, saying he had made a factual statement and that there was no issue with noting realities.

But she also told 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

The shadow chancellor became the initial high-ranking Conservative to distance himself from Jenrick over the comments, informing a gathering that they were phrases I would have avoided.

The MP repeatedly informed journalists at the event that he stood by the comments and did not resile from them as it would be wrong to shut down an important debate that the nation needs to engage in about integration.

When a reporter put it to him that his remarks could embolden extremist organizations, Jenrick said it was an absolutely disgraceful and ridiculous question.

Initial Remarks

In his original remarks, the MP said the area 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.