Badenoch defends Jenrick’s ‘no white faces in Birmingham’ comments

Tory leader says ‘nothing wrong with making observations’ after Jenrick said Handsworth was ‘worst integrated places I’ve ever been to’

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Kemi Badenoch has defended her colleague Robert Jenrick over his complaint about not seeing “another white face” in part of Birmingham but said the debate should not be about what people look like in the streets.

The Conservative leader said the shadow justice secretary had made a “factual statement” and there was “nothing wrong with making observations”. But she also told BBC Breakfast: “I don’t think this is where the debate should be about how many faces people see on the street and what they look like.”