MP wasn't in Handsworth say leaders after he called area a 'slum'

MP Robert Jenrick has been criticised again after he made incendiary comments about Handsworth when he was actually in Aston.

- By JASBIR AUTHI

Robert Jenrick

The Tory member of Parliament for Newark hit the headlines this week when audio emerged of him comparing inner city ward Handsworth to a “slum” and saying it was “one of the worst integrated places”.

During the Aldridge-Brownhills Conservative Association dinner on March 14, he remarked that he “didn’t see another white face” while visiting the area.

He made the comments after filming a piece for GB news about the bin strikes in February, claiming he was in Handsworth.

Now it has emerged he was actually walking along the Broadway, close to the corner of Witton Road in Aston.

His “hurtful” comments thrust Handsworth, which is inhabited by a high number of ethnic minorities, into the national spotlight and were condemned as racist by Birmingham leaders.