MP criticised over 'didn't see another white face' comment

SHADOW HOME SECRETARY WAS VISITING HANDSWORTH

- RHIANNON JAMES

PEOPLE of colour should not have to "justify their Britishness" to Robert Jen-rick, Labour has said, as the party criticised leaked comments reportedly made by the shadow justice secretary in March.

Mr Jenrick had said he “didn’t see another white face” during a 90-minute visit to Handsworth, Birmingham earlier this year, before adding “that’s not the kind of country I want to live in”, the Guardian reported.

Speaking at an Aldridge-Brownhills Conservative Association dinner on March 14, he went on to say it was “not about the colour of your skin or your faith”, but about people “living alongside each other.”

The leaked comments come after Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said she would not allow anyone on the right to tell her children “they do not belong in their own country”.

She told the Tory party conference on Sunday: “I am British, as we all are.

“My children are British and I will not allow anyone on the left to tell them that they belong in a different category, or anyone on the right to tell them that they do not belong in their own country.”