With its Asian grocery stores and jewellers, a West Indian bakery, sweetcorn street vendor and even a branch of the Bank of India, the main Soho Road through Handsworth certainly seems multicultural.
So Tory Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick‘s remarks that he found the district a ‘slum’ and ‘one of the worst integrated places I’ve ever been to’ during a 90-minute visit earlier this year were met with both anger and incredulity when the Daily Mail visited yesterday.
But during our own 90-minute visit to Soho Road yesterday, the Daily Mail encountered just a handful of white people – and all but two were foreign nationals.
Another white woman staggering along the pavement appeared to be on drugs, while a white man in his 20s loitering near the area’s last remaining pub had earlier been identified to us as a drug dealer by an Asian businessman.
Of the two white British people who were approached by the Daily Mail, one declined to comment while the other was a mother-of-two, Kerry Lothiyi, married to a British Asian who was born and raised in the suburb.
Kerry and Rishi Lothiyi, were walking along Soho Road with their two young daughters and said the district was a model of integration.
Mr Lothiyi, 42, said Mr Jenrick must’ve been ‘drunk’ to suggest the area had an integration problem.
The couple, who met online five years ago, live in a village in Shropshire, near 41-year-old hairdresser Mrs Lothiyi’s home town of Telford, but said Handsworth was a ‘melting pot’ of cultures.
Mr Lothiyi, a consultant whose family is from India, said he never experienced racism growing up in Handsworth ‘unless I went into the city centre’.
Robert Jenrick said litter was ‘absolutely appalling’ in Handsworth and said it was ‘as close as I’ve come to a slum in this country’. But residents said the area was a model of integration
According to Birmingham City Council, only 1,032 of Handsworth’s 11,814 residents are white, equivalent to 8.7 per cent. The main ethnic groups are Indian (2,736 residents) and Pakistani (2,962 residents).
Mr Jenrick’s comments about Handsworth were recorded during a dinner at the Aldridge-Brownhills Conservative Association dinner on March 14.
He made the remarks after the MP – whose family home is in the distinctly white Herefordshire countryside outside Leominster – had filmed a video for GB News about litter in Handsworth in the first few days of the city’s all-out bin strike.
He told the dinner: ‘I went to Handsworth in Birmingham the other day to do a video on litter and it was absolutely appalling.
‘It’s as close as I’ve come to a slum in this country. But the other thing I noticed there was that it was one of the worst integrated places I’ve ever been to.
‘In fact, in the hour and a half I was filming news there I didn’t see another white face.
‘That’s not the kind of country I want to live in.
‘I want to live in a country where people are properly integrated. It’s not about the colour of your skin or your faith, of course it isn’t. But I want people to be living alongside each other, not parallel lives. That’s not the right way we want to live as a country.’
In a recording of the Telegraph’s Daily T podcast yesterday, Mr Jenrick doubled down on his claims, saying Birmingham ‘did look like a slum’ when he visited and that his comments about not seeing a white face while there were an ‘observation’.
Among the few on the ground in Handsworth today who agreed with his comments were a Latvian mother who gave her name only as Lilija, 39. The housekeeper moved to the UK in 2010 with her husband and settled in Handsworth.
She said: ‘He (Mr Jenrick) is correct. There are many Indian and black people here. It’s always been like this, but it isn’t a problem.’
The mother-of-two said her only gripe with the area was the crime. ‘My bicycle was stolen’ she said. ‘But the police just say ‘you should have insurance’.
Tanja Muhlbauer, 29, a German from Munich has lived in Handsworth since 2018. The street vendor said: ‘I know a couple of white people here but it’s true there are not too many.’
Amongst the few other white people approached by the Mail were a Polish man who couldn’t speak English and an English man in his 20s who declined to comment.
Another local claimed: ‘The only white people you see around here are on the buses passing through’.
A British Asian who runs a printing and photography business in the area, but who asked not to be named, recalled how he had once been called up and accused of being racist – because a passer-by noticed his window display only contained photographs of black or Asian subjects.
‘I do passport photographs and portraits for people and there were some examples of my work in the shop window, but because none of the photographs were of white people I was accused of being racist’, he said. ‘The truth is that the photographs reflect my clients here.
‘There used to be more white people in this area, but ever since the shop opened in 1981 it has always been predominantly black and Asian around here.
‘The only problem I have is drug dealing on a car park behind the road – it happens in broad daylight.
Robert Jenrick remarked that he found Handsworth ‘one of the worst integrated places I’ve ever been to’ during a 90-minute visit earlier this year
‘There are not enough police. I see more parking wardens than police here.’
Ranjit Singh, the landlord of the last pub in the area, The Cross Guns, said his customers came from all colours and creeds.
‘I see white people in here all the time’, he added. ‘We have lots of Irish and English customers. Everybody gets along around here.’
As if to prove his point, roofer John Silwood then wandered in to the pub’s front bar and ordered a pint of lager.
The 35-year-old said he was stopping by after work and added: ‘Diversity is what makes Handsworth’.
A few yards further up, on the other side of the road, the Grade II-listed Red Lion Hotel still stands out on the main road.
But in what is perhaps an illustration of the changes that Handsworth has seen over recent decades, after closing in 2008, the pub stood derelict for a decade until it was bought by Sikh businessman Baba Singh, 55, and turned into a carpet and soft furnishings.
Another pub, The Frightened Horse, further down the road towards the city centre, closed around the same time and is now an Asian boutique.
According to Birmingham City Council, only 1,032 of Handsworth’s 11,814 residents are white, equivalent to 8.7 per cent.
The main ethnic groups are Indian (2,736 residents) and Pakistani (2,962 residents).
But there is also a strong Vietnamese community, as well as people from other nations such as Vinod Parekh, 60, who moved to the city from Fiji 35 years ago.
He now runs a custom-made jewellery business and said: ‘We have people coming into our business from outside of Birmingham, they come from all over the country.
‘We have a lot of people making a business here. What difference does it make what colour of skin they have?’
Another resident, who did not want to be named, said: ‘When I heard what he (Mr Jenrick) had said, my first thought was ‘haven’t we heard this crap before?’
‘Politicians like Enoch Powell were spouting about rivers of blood 50 years ago so nothing changes.
The Pound Plus Supermarket on Nineveh Road, in Handsworth, Birmingham, pictured on October 7, 2025
‘He (Mr Jenrick) might be accurate when he says there are more ethnic minorities in Handsworth than white people but so what?
‘You don’t hear people criticising the Cotswolds, which is only an hour’s drive from here, being wall-to-wall white faces, but maybe that’s because it’s full of rich people.’
Speaking on Soho Road, Ayoub Khan, the independent MP for Perry Barr, which includes Handsworth, branded Mr Jenrick’s comments ‘disingenuous’ and ‘repulsive’.
He said: ‘To make a flippant remark about faces and colour of people he may and may not have seen has undertones of racism.’
Rani Rawji, Business Liaison Officer for Soho Road Business Improvement District, said Handsworth was ‘far from a slum’ and added: ‘Whenever a shop closes we get 50 or 60 bids to take it on. It’s booming around here.
‘We have people from all communities here.’
Away from the main shopping area, residents remained exercised about Mr Jenrick’s comments.
Liz Davies, 77, a retired teacher, has lived in her smart detached home overlooking Handsworth park for more than 40 years and said the MP’s remarks were ‘ignorant and ridiculous’.
The widow added: ‘My neighbours are Asian, black and Eastern European and we all get along. This is a vibrant community, I walk in the park, regularly shop on Soho Road and go to the library along there.
‘The area has changed in the time I have lived here and there are fewer white people, but you could say that about lots of areas.
‘Everyone gets along here and that’s the main thing.’
The furious pensioner said Mr Jenrick’s comments were ‘wrong and based on bigotry’. She added: ‘As a man who has stood to be leader of his party I would have thought he would have a wider understanding of society, a better vision and more knowledge about people.
‘I’m not a woman of violence but I would like to slap him.’
Community leader Bishop Dr Desmond Jaddoo has demanded that Mr Jenrick apologise for his ‘divisive’ comments.
He said: ‘I was born in Handsworth maternity hospital and I’m black, does that make me un-British?
‘I know of lots people from ethnic minorities who are proud to live in Handsworth and are proud to call themselves British. I also know lots of white folk who are also proud to live in Handsworth.
‘Why is he (Jenrick) making these divisive comments in 2025?
‘At a time of heightened racial tensions, we should be celebrating diversity while recognising our colonial past.’
Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands, said: ‘Robert Jenrick’s comments are disgraceful. It shows a complete lack of respect for the people of our region.
‘Handsworth is a community where people of different backgrounds all live and work side by side.’
He accused Mr Jenrick of separating ‘people by the colour of their skin’.
Mr Parker added: ‘People deserve more than politicians who talk our region down for political point scoring.
‘They deserve respect – and a government that focuses on fixing the issues that matter to them. Not politicians that turn up for an hour with a video camera to show you how they spent 14 years abandoning and ignoring our region.’
