Parker says Jenrick’s comments were racist because he focused on colour to make negative point about Handsworth
In his interview on BBC Radio WM, Richard Parker, the Labour mayor of the West Midlands, was asked if he thought Robert Jenrick’s comments about Handsworth were racist. Parker replied:
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.
No other politician that I know in the West Midlands of a mainstream party would seek to do that explicitly and with the intent that he did.
The issue for me is that rather than reflect on the positive aspects of that community … he wanted to draw on a particular issue of ethnicity and colour. I think that is simply wrong.
It shows a lack of respect and understanding for those communities. And I doubt whether or not if he went to a largely white community anywhere in the West Midlands he’d be making a comment similar to what he made about Handsworth.
Key events
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Jenrick’s attack on judges ‘serious mistake’, says former supreme court justice Lord Sumption
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Jenrick says he did not mention Reform UK in his speech ‘because I don’t obsess about them’
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Green leader Zack Polanski says Jenrick’s comments about Handsworth were racist
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Lammy accuses Jenrick of ‘democratic backsliding’ because of Tory threats to judicial independence
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Jenrick’s conference speech – snap verdict
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Jenrick claims ‘collapse of old order is in sight’ as he urges Tories to fight for ‘new order’
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Jenrick says people of Britain have ‘had enough’
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Jenrick says he admires Heseltine for his combative approach to Labour in Thatcher era
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Jenrick claims he has ‘uncovered dozens of judges’ biased in favour of migrants
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Jenrick compares attorney general, Lord Hermer, to mafia lawyer, and calls him ‘useful idiot for our enemies’
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Jenrick starts speech with joke about how little time Liz Truss lasted as PM
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Farage claims Tory party ‘finished’, after Reform UK announces 20 councillor defections
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Chris Philp says Tories would allow stop and search without grounds for suspicion in crime hotspot areas
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Reform UK puts out multiple announcements about councillor defections from Tories, with more than 12 switching already
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Badenoch accepts EU could suspend criminal law enforcement cooperation if UK leaves ECHR
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Jenrick defends ‘didn’t see another white face’ comment, saying he was making case for integrated communities
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Parker says Jenrick’s comments were racist because he focused on colour to make negative point about Handsworth
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Labour West Midlands mayor Richard Parker suggests Jenrick should be thrown out of Tory party over Handsworth comments
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Badenoch accepts corporate lobbyists have stayed away from Tory conference
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Badenoch suggests Reform UK defectors are joining party that backs higher spending
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Badenoch claims poll suggesting half of Tory members want her replaced ‘not accurate’
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Badenoch brushes off announcement from Reform UK about another councillor defection from Tories
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Badenoch argues post-Brexit trade deal with EU would not stop Tories leaving ECHR
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Badenoch rejects claim she does not know where the 150,000 migrants Tories went to deport every year will go
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Badenoch claims Jenrick’s comment taken out of context, as she accepts people should not be judged on colour
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Former Tory mayor Andy Street says Jenrick wrong about Handsworth, saying it’s ‘very integrated place’ and no slum
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Badenoch dismisses case for pact with Reform UK, claiming Farage’s party wants more spending and more welfare
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Badenoch says she thinks she is best person to be Tory leader
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Badenoch condemns people taking part in Gaza protests today, on 2nd anniversary of Hamas attack
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Badenoch dismisses claims low turnout is problem for Tory conference
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Badenoch defends Jenrick over comments that he ‘did not see another white face’ in Birmingham
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Badenoch rejects claim she has ditched plan to delay policy announcements until 2027 – saying she never said that
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Badenoch faces grilling over lack of support from Tory members as conference continues
Jenrick’s attack on judges ‘serious mistake’, says former supreme court justice Lord Sumption
Lord Sumption, a former supreme court judge, told the World at One that Robert Jenrick’s proposal to change the judicial appointments process so that the lord chancellor (the justice secretary) appoints judges would be a “serious mistake”.
Sumption said that, before 2005, the lord chancellor did appoint judges. But opinion was “much less polarised” then, he said. He said the only Marxist to sit on the high court bench was appointed by Lord Hailsham, a Conservative. He went on:
If judges were appointed in today’s polarised world by the lord chancellor, I do not think the public would have the same confidence in their independence. They’re actually appointed by the judicial appointments commission, which is an independent, non-political body, and it looks for the same qualities in the judges it appoints.
The only possible reason for going back to the old system would be to appoint judges who were less independent or more political than the ones appointed by the judicial appointments commission.
Sumption said the Jenrick policy would bring the UK closer to the US model, where the president appoints judges to the supreme court. He went on:
In the United States, the supreme court has become subservient to the president and enabled him to behave like an autocrat. I think that that is a very serious business in the United States, and we should be very careful to take take warning from it.
Sumption also said he did not think it was objectionable for part-time judges to give free legal services to bodies like migration charities. Making public statements that were politically controversial was a form of misconduct, he said. But he said there were already procedures in place to deal with that. The system “works perfectly well”, he said.
He went on:
Judges have got to be independent of the government and independent of political sentiment. I entirely agree with that. But they can’t be independent if they’re liable to denounced by politicians. I think that that is a serious mistake. It’s a misjudgment on his part.
It is particularly awkward for the Tories to have Lord Sumption criticising Jenrick on this because Sumption is one of the most prominent British judges advocating withdrawal from the European convention on human rights. His comments featured prominently in the Lord Wolfson report on this issue.
Q: [From the Guardian] In your comments about Handsworth, weren’t you imposing a white normative standard for what public life would look like? And what is the basis for saying the number of white people you see in an area is a good measure is a good measure of community integration?
Jenrick asks if the reporter has looked at the ONS population figures for that community.
(He ignores the fact that they were actually published in the Guardian’s story.)
He goes on:
I was very clear in the remarks that I gave at that meeting, this is not about the colour of your skin or the faith that you abide by. It’s that, wherever possible, I want communities to be well integrated, and for people of all faiths and skin colour to be living side by side in harmonious, well integrated communities. That does not happen in all parts of our country.
I do not want my children to grow up in a country where people of one skin colour live in one part of town, people of another skin colour live in another world, the Muslims, the Jews, the Christians have got their bits of town. Come on. We’re better than that. This is Britain.
As the Guardian reported, Handsworth is mixed. Our story says:
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.
Andy Street, the former Tory mayor of the West Midlands, has also made this point forcefully. (See 8.13am.)
Jenrick says he did not mention Reform UK in his speech ‘because I don’t obsess about them’
A journalist asks Jenrick why he did not mention Reform UK in his speech.
Jenrick replies:
Because I don’t obsess about them.
This was popular with the audience at the fringe meeting (though clearly disingenous – see 1.01am.)
Jenrick criticises the decision to prosecute a man who burned a a Qur’an outside the Turkish consulate in London. He says he does not approve of burning holy texts, but he thinks this person should not have been prosecuted. That is a free speech issue, he says.
A Conservative member who describes herself as a progressive Muslim asks if the Tories would ban the Muslim Brotherhood.
Jenrick says he would ban it tomorrow.
Robert Jenrick is taking questions at a fringe meeting organised by the Daily Telegraph. There is a live feed here.
Asked about Gary Neville’s comments about flags, Jenrick says he does not want to get into a row with Neville. But he says he put up flags in his Newark constituency and it was the most popular thing he has done. He says people driving past were tooting their horns in approval.
Green leader Zack Polanski says Jenrick’s comments about Handsworth were racist
Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, has denounced Robert Jenrick’s Handsworth comments as racist. In a post on social media he said:
Jenrick could have visited Handsworth to listen to residents – he chose to pass through and make a judgement based on the colour of their skin. Instead of getting to know our nation of neighbours, he chose racism.
The Tories, Reform and Labour want to divide us.
The Greens say enough is enough.
Lammy accuses Jenrick of ‘democratic backsliding’ because of Tory threats to judicial independence
David Lammy, the deputy PM and justice secretary, has accused Robert Jenrick of threatening judicial independence, “the cornerstone of democracy”. In a statement issued in response to Jenrick’s speech, Lammy said:
Robert Jenrick calls himself a patriot, but he tramples on the British values he claims to defend. He calls himself a Conservative, but he threatens to trash the institutions and traditions that hold our country together.
The independence of judges from politicians is not optional. It is the cornerstone of British democracy. When politicians start deciding which judges can stay or go, that is democratic backsliding and Robert Jenrick knows it.
Unlike Robert Jenrick, the public knows Britishness isn’t about retreating into suspicion or judging people by the colour of their skin. It’s about pride in what we build and contribute together. While the Conservative party feeds off division and decline, Labour is delivering the patriotic renewal our country needs.
Here is Kemi Badenoch defending Robert Jenrick over his Handsworth comments in an interview earlier.
Jenrick’s conference speech – snap verdict
That was obviously a leader’s speech, or the speech of a prospective leader, but to describe it as Robert Jenrick making his pitch to replace Kemi Badenoch at some point in the next does not really do justice to the significance of what has just happened at the Conservative party conference. After being more or less comatose for 48 hours, Jenrick has just jolted it awake.
Three aspects stand out.
First, there was menace in the speech that went well beyond anything a Tory conference has heard from someone likely to be a party leader (although Suella Bravemen came close). Conference speeches normally include criticism of opponents. But what Jenrick said about Keir Starmer was unusually strong (see 12.04am), and what he said about Lord Hermer, whom he accused in effect of being a traitor to the country and a “mafia lawyer”, was probably actionable. But, even more significant, was his attack on activist laywers, which is pure McCarthyism (or Trumpism, which is even worse). (See 12.13pm.)
Second, as a leader’s speech, this was not just about pitching to be leader of the Conservative party. This was chock-full of Farage rhetoric – people at breaking point, the old order about to collapse, a new future on the horizon etc. A lot of this is just rhetorical hogwash, but people like this sort of stuff and Jenrick delivered it well. Kemi Badenoch has spent all week dismissing the threat from Reform UK on the grounds that Nigel Farage is proposing higher welfare spending (which isn’t even true). Jenrick is adopting an entirely different approach; camp on their territory, and appropriate their vision.
Third, regardless of what you think of the content, this was a very, well-crafted speech, far better than anything from anyone else at this conference. That does not necessarily mean it will be persuasive. But it is the sort of speech you would expect from someone who is very, very, very serious about becoming a leader. Badenoch should be worried.
Jenrick claims ‘collapse of old order is in sight’ as he urges Tories to fight for ‘new order’
In his spirit of Britain passage, Jenrick also cited the people he met at the protest outside the asylum hotel in Epping.
As I’ve been visiting communities, I’ve asked a lot of questions, and I’m telling you, out there, the spirit is strong.
I felt it when I went to Epping and stood with mums, local mums, sick of illegal migration and determined to keep their family safe.
I felt it when I went out with tradesmen, gas fitters like my dad, sick of their livelihoods being wrecked when scumbags break into their vans and nick their tools and sell them in plain sight to the local car boot sale.
I felt it when I talked to folk putting up flags, sick of their identity being sneered at.
The collapse of the old order is in sight. A new one is coming because the British people are fighting back.
And there’s absolutely nothing that Labour can do to stop it.
The only choice we have is whether we have the spirit to fight with them.
Are we going to quit when the going gets tough? Are we going to dig deep and fight like never before? How long will our battle last? As long as it takes, because Britain, for all its present flaws, is too precious to lose.
Let me not see our country’s honour fade. Let us see our land retain her soul, her pride, her freedom.
Conference, every tide turns. I can feel Britain’s fortunes turning.
So let’s pick ourselves, let’s dust ourselves down, let’s draw on Britain’s greatness to make it greater still.
Let’s fight for a better future. Let’s build this new order. Let’s take our country back.
Jenrick says people of Britain have ‘had enough’
Jenrick is now branching out into a more general ‘broken Britain’ argument.
He says people in the country are fed up – fed up with shoplifting, with antisocial behaviour, with the police ignoring proper crime and focusing on social media.
He goes on:
Dismissed, derided, demeaned for so long, the British people are patient and they are tolerant, but only up to a point. They’ve had enough.
Now I’ve read countless stories about how talented young people are abandoning the UK. They’re emigrating to Dubai or Singapore or Australia, and not just because of the weather.
Conference. This is my message to you. We may be a little bit down, but our country is not out, because there is a better way.
There is so much good in our country that’s worth fighting for. We’ve got so much to cherish about who we are …
A love of pubs, our love of animals, the common law, jury trials, a royal family so admired that they make the most powerful man in the world go weak at the knees, a military that has defeated every force on the planet, the roar of the crowd at Twickenham as the Red Roses beat the Canadians or Chris Woakes, arm in a sling goes out to bat at The Oval, the quiet kindness of our hospice movement, the millions of volunteers whose helping hands and broad shoulders make our society strong, the spirit of builders, of makers, of doers, of givers – these are the reasons our hearts swell when we think of Britain.
Jenrick says he admires Heseltine for his combative approach to Labour in Thatcher era
Jenrick says his audience will be wondering who the fourth Tory blonde is.
It is not Boris Johnson or Margaret Thatcher. It is Michael Hestline, he says.
He says, although he disagrees with Heseltine on many things, there is one aspect of his charcter he admires.
[Heseltine said] when he was a young man in opposition, back in the 1970s under Margaret Thatcher, he would wake up every morning and he’d ask his wife, how am I going to fight, fight, fight Labour today?
And at the end of the day, he would lie in bed again, and he would ask his wife – well, he obviously wasn’t a very romantic man – tomorrow, how am I going to fight, fight, fight Labour.
Jenrick says the Tories would restore of office of lord chancellor to its former glory.
The lord chancellor would take control of appointing judges again, he says.
