'My parish isn't a no-go zone for white people'

Conservative MP Blake Stephenson has said there are parts of Luton "where white people won't go".

"They're like no-go zones," he told a fringe event at his party's conference.

The town, where 40% of people were born outside England, was a "shadow of its former self".

How have some of those who live and work in some of Luton's most diverse suburbs responded?

"It's an absurd notion to me that this is a no-go area because obviously I live here as a – quite clearly – white person."

Rev Dr Luke Larner is sitting inside the ornate St Andrew's Church in Luton, where he has been priest-in-charge for three years.

The tattooed former bricklayer says Stephenson's comments are "really quite dangerous" because "they're divisive".

"It upsets me to hear people talk about our local communities in this way," he adds.

Larner, 42, says his 10-year-old son is the only white pupil in his class at school and that less than half of his congregation are white.

"That is part of what I love about Luton.

"It's a diverse place. It's an exciting place."

Larner acknowledges the town has its problems, mentioning deprivation, crime and anti-social behaviour.

But "to racialise the problem in that way is incredibly divisive", he says.

Stephenson, who said he lives in a village 10 to 15 minutes outside Luton, has represented the rural Mid Bedfordshire constituency since the 2024 General Election and is a shadow Home Office minister.

He was one of the panellists at an event called "From Boriswave to Brain Drain: How Can We Fix Migration?", organised by the right-leaning think tank the Centre for Policy Studies.

He told the audience parts of Luton "can be a very dangerous place".

Society needed to "make sure that we don't have ghettos, where there are no-go zones for anybody", he added.

"The country is for all of us, not just certain communities."

There was a "consensus, certainly on the right", he continued, that "mass migration has been an absolute disaster".

Stephenson said solving the issue was possible "but it requires deep levels of integration".

The solution involved leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Convention on Action Against Trafficking, which would allow the UK to "control our borders through domestic legislation", he added.

Responding to Stephenson's comments, Bedfordshire's chief constable Trevor Rodenhurst told the BBC that "we don't have a single street in Bedfordshire that's a no-go area for policing or the public".

According to police recorded crime data, there were 91.79 crimes for every 1,000 people who lived in Luton in the year up to March 2026.

That was slightly below the rate for Ipswich, which saw a rate of 92.29.

In Bristol, police recorded 139.74 crimes per 1,000 residents.

Around a 15 minute walk from St Andrew's church, where Larner preaches, is the Coffee Pot, a cafe in the Bury Park area of Luton.

The suburb is home to several of the town's mosques, halal butchers, south Asian restaurants, as well as Luton Town Football Club's Kenilworth Road stadium.

Noticing a BBC camera crew filming, the Coffee Pot's owner Tanher Ahmed calls out the front door that "this is a yes-go area – a yes-go zone".

News of Stephenson's comments has spread fast.

Ahmed, 46, says he is "really gutted".

"I'm really upset about it because I've lived in Luton for all these years [and] I've never seen anything like that."

Ahmed says he wants to invite Stephenson to Luton to show him "this is not a no-go zone" and that Luton is a "very good place to live".

Luton is known as a "super-diverse" town.

At the 2021 census, almost 40% of the population said they were born outside of England.

Pakistan was the country of birth for 7.6% of residents, while 3.9% were born in Poland.

When it came to religion, 32.9% of people in Luton were Muslim, with 37.9% Christian.

Stephenson's comments have prompted headlines and debate, including on BBC Three Counties Radio.

One listener – Chris from Hemel Hempstead – messaged the Breakfast show to say around 18 months ago he and his son were leaving a Luton Town home game when a group of around four or five teenagers told them to "hurry up and get out" of the area.

Chris, who is 61 and did not want to give his surname, said they were followed back to their car.

He says the experience was "intimidating" and he now feels there are some who "do not want white people" in certain areas of Luton.

But for Taj Ali, a left-wing freelance journalist who was "born and bred" in Luton, the town's problems are caused by a lack of investment, rather than multiculturalism.

Ali, 28, says similar problems of "substance abuse, crime, poverty" can be seen in "predominantly white working class" communities in places like Merseyside, the North East and Essex.

"When it comes to those communities, we talk about class.

"When it comes to this community, we talk about race, and that for me is a problem."

He recognises there is some "segregation" but explains that "if you're a Muslim and you want access to halal meat and a local mosque, you live in an area that caters to your needs".

"That's not driven by hatred," he adds.

"Just because Asians happen to live in particular areas of the town, it doesn't mean that we have this animosity between white residents, black residents and Asian residents."

Aslam Khan, the Conservative group leader on Luton Borough Council, spoke to Stephenson shortly after his comments were reported.

Khan said his party colleague had "made very clear" that he did not intend to offend the people of Luton or "attack Bury Park".

"What he was talking about was broadly immigration, integration and also anti-social behaviour and knife crime, which has really created fear.

"People are living in fear in their neighbourhoods and that has to be dealt with.

"We cannot continue treating the symptoms, we have to tackle the root causes and that is all about regeneration, aspiration and opportunity."

In a statement issued after the fringe event, Stephenson said he was responding to a Luton resident who had "raised this exact issue".

He added that "any place where less than two thirds of people were born in this country will clearly have challenges with integration".

"That's not a criticism of any community – that is on all of us to do more to ensure deeper levels of integration to bring our towns and our country together."

Stephenson said "lower and more sustainable levels of immigration" would help ensure "communities can better integrate".

But for Larner, at St Andrew's Church, rather than helping with integration, Stephenson's comments "divide people even further".

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