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Benefits Street spin-off on Channel 4 about immigrant residents sparks fears of racism with local MP saying it shouldn't be on TV

By John Stevens for the Daily Mail

Published: 20:53 EDT, 20 February 2015 | Updated: 08:01 EDT, 21 February 2015




Channel 4 is facing calls to cancel the follow-up to controversial series Benefits Street after claims it will spark racial tensions.

The broadcaster is due to show Immigration Street on Tuesday night, but the local MP and police and crime commissioner have called for it to be scrapped.

The fly-on-the-wall documentary follows residents on Derby Road, Southampton, including pub landlord Barrie Short.

In the last census, only 17 per cent of people in the area described themselves as White British. Immigration Street set in Derby Road, Southampton, is due to be broadcast on Channel 4 on Tuesday night

Channel 4 had commissioned a series of six episodes, but it has been cut to a one-hour programme after filming was interrupted by angry residents pelting the crew with eggs and flour.




In advertising, the programme makers claimed the street is known locally as ‘The Jungle’.

Residents raised concerns the show will stigmatise the area. Many put up posters to discourage filming during the summer, and held a protest outside Channel 4’s London headquarters.

In an open letter to the broadcaster, community leaders including MP Alan Whitehead and police and crime commissioner Simon Hayes called for the ‘ill-named and ill-advised’ programme to be stopped. Featured: Landlord Barrie Short is set to appear in the show

The letter said the street is a ‘harmonious, open, thriving, successful and diverse community’ and residents ‘do not want [it] to be stigmatised or damaged’.

It accused the production team of ‘reluctance to work constructively with the local community and us’.

Dr Whitehead, a Labour MP, said last night: ‘The residents never wanted this programme to be foisted upon them.

‘It has been a misconceived idea from the start. I wrote to all the householders … and 95 per cent said they did not think the programme was a good idea and did not want to take part.

‘Most of the families are second, third or fourth generation of immigrants in Southampton and take considerable exception to being branded as Immigration Street … I think to turn up from nowhere and label the street in this way was always a mistake.’

A spokesman for Channel 4 said last night: ‘Immigration is too important an issue for debate about it to be silenced.

‘A wide range of the people on Derby Road were happy to share their stories with us and … the programme does nothing to promote racial tension, but honestly observes lives in a diverse community … Residents are watching their contributions before the programme is screened as planned at 10pm on Tuesday.’



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