GMB's Ed Balls furiously grills Kemi Badenoch on Robert Jenrick in chaotic interview

Good Morning Britain's Ed Balls pointedly grilled Kemi Badenoch over Robert Jenrick's recent 'white face' remarks after the politician turned up late to the interview, asking her: "Are you in charge?"

The Conservative leader, 45, joined Susanna Reid and Ed Balls via video link on the ITV programme, and things got off to a bumpy start.

She was seen being mic'd up at the start and appeared to be looking at the wrong camera before confirming: "Yes I can hear you!" as she set about addressing several points of issue.

READ MORE: Kemi Badenoch refuses to slap down Robert Jenrick over 'white face' remark

READ MORE: Robert Jenrick slammed over comment about not seeing 'another white face' in Birmingham area

She said: "Right now, we want people to get back to what we need to focus on. How do we get a stronger economy? I spoke in my speech about how we're a multiracial country but we mustn't become a multicultural company where people are moving into different parts of society, not having shared views."

Ed replied: "Let me just ask you about this wider direction in policy. Your shadow home secretary is saying he wants to reintroduce stop and search by the police without them having any ground for suspicious activity. He's just gonna tell the police they've got to do random stop and searches.

"You have the shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick saying he wants to take 'political control' of sentencing away from the judges and this feels like an authoritarian lurch, I think in a reform direction. Are you in charge? Are you endorsing this?!"

She replied: "Of course! We're going back to authentic conservatism.

"We tried the sentencing council and we've seen it do thing that it should not be doing. Earlier this year, it was putting out different sentencing for people based on their race and religion.

"That's absolutely not right! We do need more stop and search, knife crime is getting out of control. We need more stop and search. I trust the police and I believe they will do a good job but if we want to look after young people's safety then we need more safety.

"Do you know who tells me this more than anyone else? It's ethnic minority parents. They are very worried about their children going out and getting hurt so that is why that is our policy!"

It all comes afer the Shadow Justice Secretary reportedly said it was not the kind of country he wanted to live in. After mentioning the lack of white people, he then went on to say it was not about “the colour of your skin or your faith” and he wanted people to live alongside each other.

But his comments, reported by the Guardian, have come under criticism from the area’s MP for suggesting he was assessing the number of white people he saw during a 90-minute period to decide whether Handsworth was “properly integrated”.

Mr Jenrick's comments were reportedly recorded during a dinner at the Aldridge-Brownhills Conservative Association dinner in March.

According to the Guardian, 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.”

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