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Spooky Snigdha @snig.bsky.social · 1d

Robert Jenrick's comments about Handsworth represent more of his abhorrent racism. There's no way he can look at the colour of someone's face and tell how "integrated" they are. Also, he went to Handsworth during a bin strike to make a video about litter to smear that community. #ToryRacism

Robert Jenrick

Robert Jenrick complained of 'not seeing another white face' in Birmingham neighbourhood

Shadow justice secretary criticised for suggesting he could tell how integrated Handsworth was based on short visit

Rowena Mason Whitehall editor

Tue 7 Oct 2025 06.57 BST

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Robert Jenrick complained about visiting an area of Birmingham where he "didn't see another white face" and said it was not the kind of country he wanted to live in.

After highlighting the lack of white people, the shadow justice secretary said it was not about "the colour of your skin or your faith" and he wanted people to live alongside each other.

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He told the dinner: “I went to Handsworth in Birmingham the other day to do a video on litter and it was absolutely appalling. It's as close as I've come to a slum in this country.

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."

The area's independent MP Ayoub Khan said: "The claims made by the shadow justice secretary are not only wildly false but also incredibly irresponsible. He has misrepresented a storied and diverse community, awkwardly distorting the product of an all-out bin strike to fit his culture-warrior narrative filled with far-right cliches.

According to Birmingham city council, the ethnicity of Handsworth is 25% Pakistani, 23% Indian, 10% Bangladeshi, 16% Black African or Black Caribbean, 10% mixed or other ethnic group and 9% white.

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 5h

UAE has no democratically elected institutions, no free speech and an appalling human rights record.

Its economy functions on completely different metrics to the ours & ranks well below us for GDP

No serious person would ever think that we should emulate it.

But here's Tice calling us decadent

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Mark Doidge @markdoidge.bsky.social · 5h

Robert Jenrick should walk around Newark and see all the white faces and bemoan the lack of integration from white people.

Sathnam Sanghera @sathnam.bsky.social · 1d

I've responded to Robert Jenrick's vile comments in @thetimes.com

www.thetimes.com/life-style/c...

I sang Jerusalem with Robert Jenrick at school — he’s wrong about race

The Conservative MP has complained that, visiting Handsworth in Birmingham, he didn’t see ‘another white face’. You can’t judge whether someone is integrated by skin colour, argues fellow Wulfrunian S...

www.thetimes.com

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Claudio Francavilla @claudiofrancavilla.bsky.social · 5h

Many of the amazing comedians who performed in Saudi Arabia often portray themselves as free speech champions, denounce "cancel culture"

Yet they didn't didn't say a word about those jailed in the country precisely for speaking up: www.hrw.org/news/2025/10...

Saudi Arabia: Comedians Silent on Detained Activists

Comedians performing at the Riyadh Comedy Festival did not use their public platform to urge Saudi authorities to free unjustly detained Saudi dissidents, journalists, and human rights activists

www.hrw.org

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Mark Doidge @markdoidge.bsky.social · 7h

Freedom of speech on campus news: my employer voluntarily monitors social media of those protesting children being killed. Is there any concern for these staff and students feeling unsafe?
www.theguardian.com/education/20...

UK universities offered to monitor students’ social media for arms firms, emails show

Loughborough, Heriot-Watt and Glasgow corresponded with companies concerned about campus protests

www.theguardian.com

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Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 1d

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

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Joseph Evans @josephevans.bsky.social · 1d

The politics of migration have shifted so far to the extreme right, the Conservatives and Reform now have a more hardline policy on deporting legal British residents than... the British National Party did in 2005

Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 2d

David is slightly unfair. There is a clear difference here.

Conservatives and Reform plan to forcibly expel large numbers of people who are legal, permanent residents of migrant origin. The BNP proposal is voluntary.

David Herdson @davidherdson.bsky.social · 2d

This below is from the 2005 BNP manifesto.

Spot the difference with current Tory and Reform policy.

(p14 news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp... )

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 1d

No sudden rupture is now required for the far right to take power in this country. For what we're seeing is a steady normalisation of extremists by the Conservative and Labour Parties, BBC, Telegraph, Mail and others. A shift once considered unthinkable beings to look acceptable, even inevitable.🧵

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Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 1d

Robert Jenrick’s comments did not have “undertones of racism" as the local MP says in this clip. They were explicitly, unequivocally, racist. He equates a lack of integration with the absence of "a white face". If this not racist what is?

www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Jenrick accused of racism over ‘no white faces’ comments as he also claims ‘collapse of old order is in sight’ – UK politics live

Labour mayor of the West Midlands says Jenrick’s comments about Handsworth were racist

www.theguardian.com

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 1d

JFC the man has not one ounce of shame in him.

He went to private school and Cambridge. He owns three homes and rents a fourth!

James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 1d

I know plenty of politicians 'working classify' their backgrounds, but this from Jenrick is taking the piss.

His father's linked in is here: uk.linkedin.com/in/bill-jenr...

He was a managing accountant who ended up as the Managing Director of Cannon Industries

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Mark Doidge @markdoidge.bsky.social · 1d

The least integrated people in this country are white people. There are whole swaths of this country with no people of colour. And most white people have no friends who are people of colour

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 2d

Robert Jenrick complained of ‘not seeing another white face’ in part of Birmingham

Shadow justice secretary criticised for suggesting he could tell how integrated Handsworth was based on 90-minute visit Robert Jenrick complained about visiting an area of Birmingham where he “didn’t see another white face” and said it was not the kind of country he wanted to live in. After highlighting the lack of white people, the shadow justice secretary said it was not about “the colour of your skin or your faith” and he wanted people to live alongside each other. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 1d

If you can't see how this will end, then you're not paying attention (not least to what's going on on the other side of the Atlantic).

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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 1d

I see from this morning’s Politico Playbook that Robert Jenrick’s wife reads out comments about him to motivate him. So now I’m tempted to post that he seems like the kind of man whose wife would perpetually be wondering if she could have married better.

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Cool Bike Art @coolbikeart1.bsky.social · 1d

"Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realize fishing is stupid and boring."
-Desmond Tutu, anti-apartheid and human rights activist

#BicycleBirthday
October 7 (1931 -2021)

Photo of a man wearing a tie standing astride a bicycle with one arm raised in the air.

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The Next Test @thenexttest.org · 1d

🏏🌍 "With temperatures around the world rising because of climate change, many cricket playing nations are facing great challenges which pose HUGE risks to the future of the game."

The sage words of World Cup winning captain, Eoin Morgan, the MCC's new Chair of Cricket 💚

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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 1d

Firms running hotels make vast profits, while often providing appalling conditions.
People seeking asylum don't choose to get stuck in hotels. Firms choose to make money off their lives, and governments choose to pay them rather than implement better alternatives.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Asylum hotel provider makes £180m profit despite claims of inedible food and rationed loo paper

Asylum seekers and charities tell BBC of

www.bbc.co.uk

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James Moules @jamesmoules.bsky.social · 2d

I’m old enough to remember when a comment like this would have been a resigning matter…

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 2d

Robert Jenrick complained of ‘not seeing another white face’ in part of Birmingham

Shadow justice secretary criticised for suggesting he could tell how integrated Handsworth was based on 90-minute visit Robert Jenrick complained about visiting an area of Birmingham where he “didn’t see another white face” and said it was not the kind of country he wanted to live in. After highlighting the lack of white people, the shadow justice secretary said it was not about “the colour of your skin or your faith” and he wanted people to live alongside each other. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 1d

So according to Jenrick, 'not integrated' means black/brown faces outnumbering white faces. How very dare they. Nothing to do with whether they're actually integrated – just what they look like.

Absolutely shameful.

He'll probably become Tory leader.

Adil Ray @adilray.bsky.social · 1d

Jenrick says, Handsworth the area I went to school in isn’t integrated as he didn’t see a white face and the closest he has seen to a slum? So is he saying we should pay minorities much more for their low paid jobs and welcome them to The Cotswolds with their mosques and temples???

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Mark Doidge @markdoidge.bsky.social · 1d

And yet Peter Kyle said he wasn’t bothered about far right marches as it showed there was freedom of speech in this country. Labour condemns one march but not the far right marches.

Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 1d

"the PM has condemned plans for pro Palestinian marches"

The mainstream media never say these protests are also against our govts complicity in Israels genocide, do they? Because then we start to get nearer to the truth, that the PM is condemning marches that are critical of him

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Mark Doidge @markdoidge.bsky.social · 2d

It’s not just that the public don’t understand the devastation of austerity, those who want to be in power don’t understand it either. No wonder they can deceive their way to elections.

James Ball @jamesrball.com · 2d

*gasp*

“Everyone thought we’d come in and there were going to be these huge costs we could cut away but there just aren’t,” said a third senior Reform cabinet member in Kent.

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Martin Calladine @uglygame.bsky.social · 2d

A vintage weekend for long-time Syed afficionados. Could he become the cleverest person ever to fail to get elected for both Labour and the Tories?

I don't believe Nigel Farage is a racist but I do believe he's a socialist.' Tories should show proper penitence, said Syed, and not descend to cheap shots.

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Cas Ⓜ️udde @casmudde.bsky.social · 2d

A government that extrajudicially kills foreigners abroad will also (try to) extrajudicially kill its own citizens at home.

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Mark Doidge @markdoidge.bsky.social · 2d

We all thought Trump would start the Third World War but he’s just going to start the Second American Civil War

Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 2d

Stephen Miller said last year this was the plan. They said it out loud. Some of us highlighted his remarks at the time and warned how dangerous they were. Most of the media missed them and/or moved on from them. It’s happening:

@NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze) @newsjennifer.bsky.social · 2d

Red states sending troops to blue states is a really bad idea.

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Running Dog @runningdog.bsky.social · 3d

You might think commentators would be reflecting on their definitions of radical socialism now that mass deportations are on the menu and their preferred Sensible Moderate solution is eating shit both at the polls and in the governing department. But you would be wrong to think that

Arguably the real dynamic is that elements of the right have hardened, embracing positions that would have been unacceptable a decade ago. By contrast, Labour's policies are clearly less radical, and less socialist, than those proposed by Jeremy Corbyn, eight or so years ago. (Corbyn's new venture is yet to demonstrate it's capable of naming itself.)

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