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Keir Starmer has criticized the shadow justice secretary's remarks about not seeing another white face in parts of Birmingham, stating the politician was hard to take seriously.

Political Ambitions Accusations

Starmer implied that Jenrick's comments were linked to a stealth Tory bid for leadership and said he did not believe they painted a true picture the area 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 complaint despite backlash from individuals including the former Conservative mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street.

Local Rejection and Defense

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

• The former mayor had told the media the remarks were incorrect and described Handsworth as a highly cohesive community.
• 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 him, saying he had made a truthful observation 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.

Internal Disagreements

The shadow chancellor became the first senior Tory to distance himself from Jenrick over the comments, informing a Politico fringe event that they were phrases I would have avoided.

The MP repeatedly told interviewers at the conference that he supported the comments and did not retract them as it would be wrong to end a crucial discussion that we have to have as a country about integration.

When a reporter put it to him that his remarks could encourage extremist organizations, Jenrick said it was an completely unacceptable and absurd question.

Original Remarks

In his initial comments, Jenrick said the area was among the least cohesive locations I have visited. In fact, in the hour and a half he was recording in the area 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.