Paul Scully’s remarks about ‘no-go areas’ in Birmingham and London have been slammed as “flippant and divisive” by Bishop Desmond Jaddoo MBE.
The Tory former government minister sparked a fresh row over Islamophobia in the Conservative Party when he made reference to parts of the capital and Birmingham with high Muslim populations.
Jaddoo joined Andrew Pierce and Bev Turner on GB News to invite Scully to Stratford Road in Birmingham, adding the Sutton and Cheam MP can “point out where the no-go areas are”.
“It’s divisive. It’s damaging to community relations”, he said.
Bishop Desmond Jaddoo MBE blasted Scully's 'divisive' comments
PARLIAMENT / GB NEWS
“We’re all God’s children and we’re all equal.
“As far as I’m concerned, stigmatising communities is not a way to make political points.
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Bishop Desmond Jaddoo MBE joined Andrew and Bev on GB News
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“That’s what’s happened here. We’re not talking about Muslims here, we’re talking about people from the south Asian community.
“When the Windrush Generation came here, they had signs of ‘no blacks, no Irish, no dogs’, so people could only go to communities where they felt welcome.
“The no-go areas existed then because signs were saying ‘you’re not welcome’.
“People have got to be adults. If you’re struggling politically you have to find a solution to help people living in these areas.
“We have got so much socio economic factors impacting these areas, but we’re just stigmatising them more.”
In an interview with BBC London, Scully, the ex-London minister, spoke about claims about Islamophobia in the Tory Party.
He said: “The point I am trying to make is if you look at parts of Tower Hamlets, for example, where there are no-go areas, parts of Birmingham Sparkhill, where there are no-go areas, mainly because of doctrine, mainly because of people using, abusing in many ways, their religion to… because it is not the doctrine of Islam, to espouse what some of these people are saying.
“That, I think, is the concern that needs to be addressed.”
No 10 said Mr Sunak did not agree with Scully’s assessment.
Asked whether the Prime Minister concurred that there are “no-go” areas in Birmingham, his official spokesman said: “No, and the PM has talked before about the value of the very diverse communities and societies that we have in the UK.”