THE Bishop of Birmingham, Dr Michael Volland, has expressed “dismay and disappointment” in response to remarks by Robert Jenrick, who, after a visit to Handsworth, said that he had not seen “another white face” in the inner-city area.
Mr Jenrick, the Conservative MP for Newark and the Shadow Justice Secretary, was recorded discussing integration at an Aldridge-Brownhills Conservative Association dinner in March. His remark was published by The Guardian on Tuesday.
The MP reportedly said that Handsworth was “as close as I’ve come to a slum in this country”. He continued: “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.”
In an open letter published on Tuesday, Dr Volland said that he rejected Mr Jenrick’s comments and had invited him to visit Handsworth again, where the Bishop would introduce him “to a wide range of local residents who are entirely committed to the flourishing of their community and the wellbeing of its people”.
He went on to describe Mr Jenrick’s remarks as a “harmful narrative” that had “the potential to generate anxiety and stir up division”. He wrote: “It is deeply unhelpful for politicians to make such comments and I encourage you to think about how your rhetoric might contribute towards unity rather than stoking division.”
Dr Volland said that he had recently visited St Michael’s C of E Primary Academy to congratulate the school on its Outstanding Ofsted result. He said that it had an “energetic approach to ensuring full integration of children and families in this wonderfully diverse community with many shared values”.
The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, defended Mr Jenrick, but said that she would take the Guardian article “with a pinch of salt”.
She told the BBC on Tuesday: “The fact is, these are recordings out of context. I don’t know what was being discussed before he said that. But in and of itself, it’s a factual statement. If he said he didn’t see another white face, he might have been making an observation. There’s nothing wrong with making observations.
“What he and I both agree with is that there are not enough people integrating. There are many people who are creating separate communities.”
She continued: “I heard that one of the MPs of that area was accusing him of racism. I completely disagree with that. I want to make that very clear.”
Speaking at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Wednesday, Ms Badenoch said in her keynote speech that she stood for a society “where people are judged by the content of their character, not the colour of their skin.”
When asked about Mr Jenrick’s remarks, the Prime Minister said that it was “quite hard to take anything that Robert Jenrick says seriously [as] he’s clearly still running his leadership campaign”.
Mr Jenrick said that he stood by his comments, telling the Telegraph’s Daily T podcast on Tuesday: “I didn’t see a mix of people on the streets. It was an observation.” He said that people should not, out of a “misplaced fear of being called racist”, stop debating integration.