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\n West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker at the Growth Plan launch in Wolverhampton (Credit: WMCA)<\/p>\n
\n West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker at the Growth Plan launch in Wolverhampton (Credit: WMCA)<\/p>\n
\n Labour politicians in Birmingham have condemned remarks made by Robert Jenrick after he called the Handsworth area \u201cone of the worst-integrated places\u201d he had ever been to.\n <\/p>\n
In a recording reportedly made during a dinner at Aldrige-Brownhills Conservative Association and published by the Guardian, Jenrick said he had not seen \u201canother white face\u201d in the hour-and-a-half he spent in Handsworth filming a video about litter.<\/p>\n
The Labour leader of Birmingham Council described the Conservative MP\u2019s comments as \u201cracism\u201d this morning while Richard Parker, West Midlands Mayor, called them \u201cdisgraceful\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows a complete lack of respect for the people of our region,\u201d the Labour Mayor said. \u201cHandsworth is a community where people of different backgrounds all live and work side by side.<\/p>\n
\u201cBirmingham is a proud, diverse city built by generations from every background.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t separate people by the colour of their skin \u2013 and that\u2019s what Jenrick has done here with his comments. I\u2019m incredibly sad but also very angry.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cWhat also concerns me, is that there were Conservative politicians in that room, from our region, and they didn\u2019t speak up<\/p>\n
\u201cSilence in the face of this kind of rhetoric is not leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Parker said people deserved more than politicians \u201cwho talk our region down for political point scoring\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey deserve respect \u2013 and a government that focuses on fixing the issues that matter to them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot politicians that turn up for an hour with a video camera to show you how they spent 14 years abandoning and ignoring our region.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cllr John Cotton, leader of Birmingham City Council, said Mr Jenrick \u201cknows nothing about Birmingham\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll he wants to do is sow division \u2014 this is racism, plain and simple and he isn\u2019t welcome here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs usual all the Tories want to do is talk Birmingham down.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of insulting Brummies, Jenrick should be apologising to us for the damage 14 years of Tory government caused to our city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coun Cotton said he was proud of Birmingham and described it as a \u201cdiverse, resilient, and talented city full of energy and determination\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur city will always stand firm against division,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is something opportunists like Jenrick will never understand \u2013 and why Birmingham has repeatedly rejected the divisive politics he peddles.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Monday evening, Jenrick stood by his remarks, saying: \u201cSix separate government reports over 20 years have highlighted the problem of parallel communities and called for a frank and honest conversation about the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe situation is no better today. Unlike other politicians, I won\u2019t shy away from this issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to integrate communities if we are to be a united country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said she did not know the context of the recording but that Jenrick may have been \u201cmaking an observation\u201d about his visit to the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t there so I can\u2019t say how many faces he saw, but the point is that there are many people in our country who are not integrating,\u201d she told BBC Breakfast on Tuesday, adding she was \u201cvery worried about what is happening in Birmingham\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker at the Growth Plan launch in Wolverhampton (Credit: WMCA) Labour politicians in Birmingham…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[22440,22441,855,9163,22439,748,9444,1354,393,9453,4884,14987,269,12,3669,9440,93,16823,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-481934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-102-5","9":"tag-102-5-fm","10":"tag-birmingham","11":"tag-black-country","12":"tag-brierley-hill","13":"tag-britain","14":"tag-dab","15":"tag-dudley","16":"tag-england","17":"tag-fm","18":"tag-great-britain","19":"tag-halesowen","20":"tag-music","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-online","23":"tag-radio","24":"tag-sport","25":"tag-stourbridge","26":"tag-uk","27":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115336465965444514","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}