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The Prime Minister has criticized Robert Jenrick's remarks about not seeing another white face in parts of Handsworth, suggesting the politician was difficult to regard credibly.

Leadership Campaign Accusations

The prime minister implied that Jenrick's comments were part of a covert Conservative leadership campaign and asserted he did not believe they painted a true picture the neighborhood of Handsworth.

It’s quite hard to take anything that Robert Jenrick says seriously; he’s clearly still running his leadership campaign.

Jenrick has been criticized for igniting a fire of toxic nationalism after he reiterated his complaint despite backlash from figures including the former Conservative mayor of the West Midlands, the former mayor.

Local Response and Defense

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

• Street had told BBC Newsnight the comments were wrong 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, defended Jenrick, saying he had made a factual statement and that there was no issue with noting realities.

However, she added on the program: In my opinion, the discussion should not focus on the number or appearance of individuals seen on streets.

Internal Divisions

The shadow chancellor became the first senior Tory to distance himself from his colleague over the comments, telling a gathering that they were phrases I would have avoided.

Jenrick repeatedly informed journalists at the conference that he stood by the remarks and did not retract them as it would be wrong to end a crucial discussion that the nation needs to engage in about integration.

When a Sky News journalist put it to him that his comments could encourage extremist organizations, he said it was an completely unacceptable and absurd inquiry.

Original Remarks

In his original remarks, Jenrick said Handsworth was one of the worst integrated places I’ve ever been to. In fact, in the 90 minutes he was filming news there 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.