Jenrick is engaging in a leadership campaign, says Starmer

Robert Jenrick is “clearly just engaging in a leadership campaign”, Sir Keir Starmer said, after the senior Tory complained he “didn’t see another white face” during a visit to an area of Birmingham.

The Prime Minister said the Government needed “no lessons” on integration from the shadow justice secretary, after the claims he made during a 90-minute visit to Handsworth earlier this year came to light.

In an audio recording obtained by the Guardian, Mr Jenrick can be heard to make the remarks before adding: “That’s not the kind of country I want to live in.”

His claims have drawn widespread condemnation, including from the Tory former mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, and the Bishop of Birmingham.

Mr Jenrick has defended his comments, saying he “won’t shy away” from issues of integration.

Asked about the Conservative frontbencher’s claims as he travelled to Mumbai, Sir Keir told journalists: “It’s quite hard to take anything that Robert Jenrick says seriously, he’s clearly still running his leadership campaign.

“I think that what Andy Street said was right. Andy Street obviously was mayor for a long time and knows the area very, very well.

“We’re working hard on questions of integration, but we need no lessons or lectures from Robert Jenrick on any of this. He’s clearly just engaging in a leadership campaign.”

The remarks were made at an Aldridge-Brownhills Conservative Association dinner on March 14, where Mr Jenrick went on to say it was “not about the colour of your skin or your faith”, but about people “living alongside each other”.

Handsworth’s population by ethnicity is 9% white, 25% Pakistani, 23% Indian and 10% Bangladeshi, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.

Mr Jenrick told a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference that he visited during the early stages of Birmingham’s bin strike and that it “did look like a slum”.

“I didn’t see a mix of people on the streets. It was an observation,” he told the Telegraph’s Daily T podcast.

He said people should not be stopped from talking about integration out of a “misplaced fear of being called racist”.

Asked if he had any regrets about his comments, Mr Jenrick told BBC Radio 5 Live on Tuesday: “No, not at all and I won’t shy away from these issues.”

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch defended her shadow minister, saying she did not agree with accusations of racism and that there is “nothing wrong with making observations”.

But former Tory mayor Andy Street has said Mr Jenrick was “wrong” about Handsworth.

The Bishop of Birmingham, Right Reverend Michael Volland, said he had been dismayed and disappointed to hear Mr Jenrick’s remarks.

In a letter to Mr Jenrick, co-signed by a number of community leaders, he said: “Comments like those you have made have the potential to generate anxiety and stir up division.

“They can feed into a harmful narrative that provides fuel for a fire of toxic nationalism.

“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.”

Labour’s West Midlands mayor Richard Parker told BBC Radio WM he found the comments racist.

“I do. Because he’s set out intentionally to draw on a particular issue, people’s colour, to identify the point he wanted to make,” he said.