Earlier this month Tory ex-minister Robert Jenrick hit headlines with his description of his visit to Handsworth claiming to have seen no other white people or evidence of racial integration. A local Socialist Party member wrote the following in response:
Complaining about the lack of integration and not seeing enough white faces whilst visiting Handsworth in Birmingham shouldn’t even be on the list of issues for Tory shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick.
What is the point of making statements like these? Working-class people in Handsworth face hardship daily from the lack of local and central government support and investment.
The only thing Jenrick can mention is race and lack of integration? Sounds like dog whistling.
Why not focus on the cost of housing? Rents, council tax and energy bills are ever increasing while our pay stays the same. Divide and conquer seems to be the Tory strategy; nothing else to offer apart from the same old song that has been played out with no results. All to compete with Reform UK’s similar bigotry.
If Jenrick’s concern is integration, why not suggest further investments in social spaces like community centres or youth clubs? That would be something refreshing to hear and welcomed by many. But focusing on working-class issues is beyond him; making sound clips for the internet is easier.
What does he mean by integration? Does he need people eating fish and chips in front of him, or maybe some full English breakfasts would prove to him that people have integrated? It’s no wonder he made these unnecessary comments to get some attention, we all know Tory MPs are completely out of touch with working-class lives.
(photo: striking lecturers at the Handsworth campus of South & City College pictured in 2023)