Welcome to the road with the fewest English speakers: Residents reveal what they really think of their neighbours… and why some critics are ‘unfair’

The long rows of tiny Victorian terraced houses are like hundreds of others around the Midlands, the North and any of the towns and cities whose occupants powered Britain’s industrial past.

But Mornington Street, in St Matthew’s, Leicester, can ‘boast’ something the others cannot.

It is, according to official statistics, the road with the lowest proportion of English speakers in the UK. It’s hardly a surprise to find that dubious title is claimed by a street in Leicester.

After all, according to the 2021 Census, only 57 per cent of the city’s residents were born in England, down from 65 per cent in 2011.

Over the decades, Leicester has been the destination of choice for generations of incoming Bengali, Indian, Pakistani and Somalian migrants, along with many others, each finding groups of their own people, already settled in particular areas of the city.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer rattled many of his own Labour MPs this week with his ‘Island of Strangers’ speech, compared by many to Enoch Powell’s infamous ‘Rivers of Blood’ oratory, delivered in Birmingham in 1968.

No doubt Starmer had in mind areas like Mornington Street and the pocket of streets around it where the Census found that 43 per cent of the over-16s speak little or no English.

And although he refused to put a cap on the number of migrants coming to Britain, the PM was adamant about the need for those who do come to assimilate.

Acknowledging the ‘massive contribution’ made by migrants today, he added: ‘When people come to our country, they should also commit to integration, to learning our language.

‘And our system should actively distinguish between those that do and those that don’t. I think that’s fair.’

Starmer’s new hard line on immigration received a mixed reaction from fellow politicians. Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK taunted him in the Commons: ‘You seem to be learning a great deal from us’, while it was condemned by left-winger Diane Abbott as ‘shameful’.

Yet in Mornington Street and the surrounding area, most people agree that migrants should be encouraged to learn English. This part of Leicester is largely populated by Muslims of Indian origin, mainly from the western state of Gujarat.

Made up of just a dozen roads and around 2,000 people, the pocket of North Evington is home to two mosques and a Hindu temple. The terraced Mornington Street is the main thoroughfare in the community, located just over a mile west of the city centre.

It is at the heart of an enclave of 34 districts, known as LSOAs, stretching through Leicester where at least a fifth of the population speak little to no English.

Many of the non-English speakers are new arrivals or perhaps elderly relatives who depend on younger members of the family to navigate the complexities of the English language.

Walking around the streets, where Palestinian and Indian flags abound, it would be easy to imagine you’re in a foreign country. Business is brisk at the Islamabad cash and carry, women in burqas are everywhere you look, and there’s a 50 per cent off sale at the Shaikha sari shop.

In some households where up to three generations are living cosily together it is the younger ones who act as translators for their parents and grandparents, local primary school worker Ruki explained.

But the mother-of-three from Malawi in south-east Africa, who speaks perfect English, feels it is ‘wrong that some people residing here don’t make the effort to learn the language.’

Ruki, 62, who has lived on Mornington Street since she moved to Britain in 1974, said there were ‘communication issues’ with some families when it came to daily life and it particularly caused a problem with education and health.

Preferring not to give her surname, Ruki explained: ‘Sometimes the little ones have to come into to school office with their mums and dads to translate for them.’

Ruki, a lunch-time supervisor at the nearby St Barnabys Primary School, said: ‘There are people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Africa, Eastern Europe as well as some white English.

‘A lot of the older Asian generations speak no English or very little and it can cause problems.

‘But they don’t feel the need because all the youngsters in the household speak English as well as their native tongue, so they get by.’

She added: ‘I believe it is wrong that some people residing here don’t make the effort to learn the language. Some may disagree with me, but they should make the effort.

‘It is very sad that they don’t.

‘All the children speak English and their parents should too and at school all lessons are English only.’

At the Zagros pizza takeaway on the corner of Mornington Street, you can get any topping under the sun, but the curry ones sell best, especially the ‘Hot and Spicy’ one with extra chillis.

Owner Shohel Issufo, 37, came to the UK from Gujarat in 2003, and worked in a food factory. ‘My English was very bad to begin with, but I did an ESOL [English for speakers of other languages] course at college for a year and it helped a lot.’

He met his wife (also Gujarati) in Leicester, and they have two children. She speaks English as well and still works in a food factory.

‘It was always my dream to have my own business, and I saved up to buy this shop two year ago,’ added Shohel

‘It is very important for people to learn English, and I think the reason some don’t is that they surround themselves with a comfort zone of people who speak their language, and they don’t feel it’s necessary.

‘When I came here, I had to learn English to get on, because there weren’t so many people around who spoke Gujurati.

‘My two children, aged 10 and seven, would say they are British, but also Indian. They love both sides of their culture. I understand that you can’t let all immigrants in, but as long as they are contributing to the economy, paying their taxes, providing services, they should be allowed.’

When our reporter visited Mornington Street, crammed full with red brick Victorian terraces, some residents walking down the road or standing outside in the sunshine, looked blank when approached.

An elderly lady, a relative, standing at the front door while a man was repairing a hallway, simply shook her head.

Further down the road, on the other side, a mother had to call her nephew to the door when our reporter attempted to have a conversation with her.

He spoke in Memon to his 38-year-old aunt, explaining the nature of our visit, saying: ‘She has never learnt English and doesn’t like the language. It is too difficult for her to learn and why should she?’

‘She speaks in her mother language to her husband, my uncle, and friends and many people in the street speak an Indian dialect. So she can have conversations with them.

The man, who lives with his relatives in the rented home, said he spoke both languages but only Memon at home.

At the end of the street, garage owner at Brusk Motors, Ribwar Hussein, 46, an Iraqi Kurd, who came to the UK in 2000, proudly shows off his swanky silver Chrysler 300 Rolls Royce-lookalike, which certainly stands apart from the other cars in Mornington Street.

‘I knew no English when I came to this country,’ he said. ‘But I married an English woman and that certainly helped me learn.

‘We have two children and at home we speak English, though the children can also speak some Kurdish. They feel they English and Kurdish, though the longer I stay here, the Kurdish part begins to fade a little.

‘I’m not sure why so many people here don’t learn English, but I suppose if they can speak to their friends in their own language, maybe they don’t feel they need to. But to be able to get a better life, I think it is necessary.’

Leicester has not just been a melting pot for immigrants, it has also proved to be something of a tinder box in the past, when parts of the city, including St Matthew’s, erupted into riots in 2022 between Muslims and Hindus.

Thankfully the recent exchanges of fire between India and Pakistan have not been replicated on the streets of Leicester, but no-one knows what havoc an all-out war between the two states could also wreak in Leicester.

Community leader Mansoor Moghal MBE served for many years as Chairman of Leicestershire’s Race Relations Committee and believes the peace will hold between the city’s different factions.

‘This war between India and Pakistan has not affected people directly in Leicester, and I don’t think it will. They learnt lessons from the riots in 2022. It was easily preventable, but the police did not take action in time, and things got out of hand.’

But he fears Keir Starmer has played into Reform’s hands with his recent stance.

‘I think, is an unfortunate statement. The non-white people in Leicester have integrity and they’ve thrived and cooperated, in businesses, in social life, in professional life.

‘What he has said will backfire and add fuel to racism. Instead of being able to dilute the agenda of Reform, he has given them a lot of strength. I don’t think he has thought it through.’

Mr Mansoor accepted there were ‘pockets’ of non-English speakers, but said the ‘vast majority’ of non-white people in Leicester spoke English, and suggested that European migrants could be a factor behind the high numbers of non-English speakers in the Census figures.

Payl Vaghela, dropping off some items at her mother’s home in the street while the family was out, said: ‘My mum has lived here for 40 years and has a lot of friends. She loves the community.

‘We’re an Indian family but mum speaks both English and Indian. It would be very strange not speaking the language of the country you live, and I guess quite difficult at times.’

Payl, accompanied by her three-year-old son, said: ‘I was born in Britain and grew up speaking both languages.

‘My parents and two brothers speak a mixture of English and Gujarati at home.’

The carer for a council-run community scheme, who lives in a neighbouring road, added: ‘My son speaks English only no Gujarati but knows a few bits and bobs.’

An elderly 90-year-old man, walking slowly in his flowing robes with the aid of a stick to prayers at the mosque appeared to want to engage in conversation but simply couldn’t because of a language barrier.

A woman passing by, stepping into translate and speaking in a shared language, said on his behalf: ‘The gentleman is from Bangladesh and speaks no English. He is ninety years old and has lived her for 20 years.

‘He is going to join prayers and said it is a very important time for him.’

We met Amazon worker Rohik Kumal, 35, strolling along Green Lane Road at the end of Mornington Street with his wife Reetadevi and three-year-old daughter Jacqueline.

They came to Britain in 2020 speaking some English but have picked up more as time has progressed.

‘I think it is important to learn English if you want to make a good living here,’ said Rohik, ‘but some people don’t have the time or maybe just don’t get around to it. Should they be forced to? I don’t know if that’s a good idea.’

Outside the huge ornate Jame’ Masjid Mosque which serves Mornington Street, crisp factory worker and father-of-two Imran Ussene, 44, urged people to seek education in English.

‘I spoke a little English when I came here from India in 2005.

‘There are classes, my wife did classes in English, but people might have other commitments like childcare or things, so they don’t make the classes.

‘Also, if you’ve just finished a 12-hour shift working in a factory, you might not want to pick up an English book and prefer to relax and watch a film in your native language instead.’

Second-generation Indian immigrant Rukshana Fatiwala, 55, was visiting friends in Mornington Street with her elderly mother when we met.

She was born in Leicester and used to work at the city’s Job Centre. Later, together with her husband, who came to Britain from India, she helped build a small ’empire’ of property but now cares full-time for her mother.

She thought any suggestion that people should be forced to learn English was ‘unfair’.

‘Of course, you’ll get a better job and all that if you speak English,’ she said, ‘but plenty of people have skills which don’t really need the language.

‘My mother doesn’t speak English, but she understands it, and you’ll find that in many families, the conversation runs along in at least a couple of languages and everyone understands.

‘But if he’s saying that people have to learn English, I don’t think that’s fair, because they’ll mostly pick it up as they go. My husband had English classes, but sometimes he bunked off them because he had work to do, but he’s been very successful, nonetheless.

‘It’s important, but surely, it’s more vital that people pay their taxes, create jobs for others and improve the prosperity of the country. And to me, that’s something that immigration does bring.’