Overview

• Audio from the 14 March Aldridge-Brownhills Conservative Association dinner captures Jenrick describing Handsworth as "as close as I've come to a slum" and "one of the worst integrated places."
• He said he spent 90 minutes there without seeing "another white face" and called that "not the kind of country I want to live in."
• Birmingham figures including MP Ayoub Khan and former MP Khalid Mahmood denounced the comments as false and divisive.
• Birmingham City Council data shows Handsworth is about 9% white, with large Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi and Black communities.
• Local leaders said the litter and decline he cited reflect austerity, HMOs and a recent bin strike; his spokesperson declined comment as a close source framed the point as about integration rather than skin colour.