A Toy MP has said it is “not xenophobic” to want town centres to not feel like a “foreign county”.
Speaking on the fringes of the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Monday, Tom Hunt said he wanted to see “cohesive communities”.
“Being frank, it is not xenophobic for when you walk into your town centre to not want to feel like you are living in a foreign country,” he said.
“We know when you get good levels of integration, actually multiculturalism can be enriching.
The Ipswich MP added: “When you don’t get that integration, when you have communities living parallel existences, that’s not a good thing for communities.”
“It gives immigration a bad name which is not something we should accept.”
The comments come after home secretary Suella Braverman triggered a backlash after she said multiculturalism had “failed”.
Hunt said Braverman was doing a “sterling job” and praised her “brilliant” speech as “brave”, in an address to the New Conservatives group of Tories.
The party’s conference is likely the last before the general election, which is expected next year.
Rishi Sunak hopes to use the gathering to relaunch his premiership and close the gap in the polls with Labour.
But many senior Tories are already seen to be jostling for the next leadership contest should the party lose.
Braverman, business secretary Kemi Badenoch and Commons leader Penny Mordaunt are all seen as likely to run.