'Racists make me second-guess visiting parts of Birmingham' – Home Secretary

LADYWOOD MP SPOKE OUT AGAINST RISE IN RACISM AT LABOUR PARTY CONFERENCE

- JANE HAYNES People & Politics Editor

Ladywood MP and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has spoken of the vile racism endured by members of her family last month in her home city, while warning there are parts of the city she is uncertain to visit.

She said she had endured 'sleepless nights' after relatives had been called 'f****** p***' while near their home in Small Heath.

And she admitted: “You know, there’s some parts of Birmingham, I'm sort of second-guessing whether I can go back to again.”

Mahmood, who was recently promoted to Home Secretary from her role leading the Justice department, was speaking at a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference, when she made her admission.

She described anti-Muslim hatred in the UK now as “on a scale that I've never known in my lifetime”.

She recalled first hearing the word 'P***' when she was a child, and how her family were so badly abused in Sutton Park, in Sutton Coldfield, that they ‘did not return for 30 years’.