'Jenrick's 'white faces' comment would have once been enough to get an MP sacked'
Robert Jenrick has defended comments made in March 2025 about the lack of white people in an area of Birmingham he visited – and Tory colleagues have rallied to back him. But do his comments make practical sense, and does the shadow cabinet even believe them?
Listen to this article
Read time: 4 mins
In brief…
- Robert Jenrick’s comments, complaining about the lack of “white faces” in a Birmingham neighbourhood, would have resulted in a politician losing their front bench job five-ten years ago, The News Agents say.
- Jon and Lewis agree that integration is important, but Tory claims that his comments were not about race are empty, considering Jenrick’s words.
- They say Jenrick’s comments on integration don’t make sense, and fall apart under the smallest of scrutiny.
What’s the story?
Robert Jenrick, shadow justice secretary and a man many consider a future leader of the Conservative Party, has defended comments made about lack of diversity in UK towns.
He was recorded in March 2025, during a private dinner at the Aldridge-Brownhills Conservative Association, where he claimed he hadn’t seen “another white face” during an hour and a half spent in Handsworth filming a GB News video about litter.
Jenrick described the area of Birmingham as “one of the worst-integrated places” he had ever visited.
“It was absolutely appalling. It's as close as I've come to a slum in this country,” Jenrick said.
“But the other thing that 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 that I was filming with news there, I didn't see another white face.”
His words have been criticised by political rivals, but supported by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who said she was “very worried about what is happening in Birmingham”, and said there are “many” people in the UK who are not integrating.
“Ten years ago, maybe even five years ago, comments like that would have gotten you the sack from the front bench of any major political party,” says Lewis Goodall.
“But this morning, Jenrick and Badenoch have come out fighting.”
Jenrick insisted in the recording, and in interviews since it was leaked, that he was only criticising the lack of integration, not focusing on skin colour.
To Jon Sopel, the Tory response today is "doubling down" on the leaked comments.
"There is no apology, and though he says it's not about the colour of anyone's skin, the comment is entirely about the colour of the skin of the people he saw in Handsworth," he says.
Do Jenrick’s comments even make sense?
Both Jon and Lewis agree that it doesn’t take too much analysis before Jenrick’s comments start to come undone.
Jon says the UK has a cycle of integration spanning hundreds of years, where minority groups will move into certain areas, and as they integrate into society and their economic well-being advances, eventually they move out into suburbs – making room for another group to take its place.
“I’m not sure what is remarkable about finding clusters of people living in certain areas because they've come to a country where they don't know anyone,” he says.
“They go to where there may be relatives or somewhere with a community centre, or a sense of where they can belong.”
Lewis says neither Jenrick’s original comments, or the new defence “make any sense” – and for the state to try to direct or incentivise social mixing, which usually happens organically, is entirely impractical.
For example, enforcing social integration could ultimately result in the breaking up of other clusters in society. Would Jenrick consider abolishing faith schools, or private schools? Could this extend to breaking up groups of wealthy people living close together?
“He doesn't really believe in the practical consequences of what he's saying,” Lewis says.
“It then becomes a bit of a dog whistle, and it just reflects that slow shift to more extreme language on race and ethnicity and culture that we've been seeing galloping now for some time.”
What’s The News Agents’ take?
Lewis agrees that there are problems with integration in British cities, but entirely rejects the notion that Jenrick’s comments were not about race.
“He is the one who invokes white faces. He is the one who chooses this as his metric, and says he doesn't want to live in a country like that – yet in the next breath, he says it's about wider integration,” Lewis says.
“How can anyone who doesn't have a white face listen to that and not think that if the shadow Justice Secretary comes to their area, he will be using their face as a metric for whether or not they are integrated into this society.”
Jon says the only area he agrees with Jenrick on is that integration is important – but he can’t get on board with how the shadow justice secretary delivers that message.
“The way in which Jenrick and the Tories are saying it, seems to me to have party political purpose at its heart, to create a kind of wedge issue,” he says.
“And it’s not going to be overly welcomed by the communities you're claiming to say you want to see living these blended lives alongside everyone else.”