Robert Jenrick says 'millions and millions' of people in England are not 'culturally or ethnically' English as identity row between Reform and Tories escalates
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Robert Jenrick has said that 'millions and millions' of people in England are not 'culturally or ethnically' English as the identity row dividing the Right escalated.
Kemi Badenoch used her party conference speech on Wednesday to declare herself a 'proud black Briton' as she accused Reform of wanting to take the UK backwards with outdated views on race.
The Tory leader spoke out after her former Cabinet colleague Suella Braverman, who defected to Reform, started a row when she said that she did not consider herself to be English, despite being born in London.
And now Reform's treasury spokesman has waded further into the row, saying 'there is such a thing as English ethnicity' and it is 'perfectly normal' to debate whether only white people can be English.
Mr Jenrick said: 'We've ended up in a country where there are millions and millions of people who have a British passport in their bedroom drawer, but who are not culturally British by my standards, are not culturally English either, and are not ethnically English as well.
'And that is a world away from this country as it was 50 years ago, certainly 100 years ago. And this debate is a perfectly normal one for us to be having.'
Meanwhile Mrs Badenoch won the surprise backing of Labour for her intervention on Englishness in her conference speech in Birmingham, with Wes Streeting expressing his 'total support' for the remarks.
The Defence Secretary said: 'There are plenty of things where we have healthy disagreement, but there are some core values - the things that define us as a country - that are under attack and unity is strength.'
Robert Jenrick has waded into the row about identity, saying that 'millions and millions' of people in England are not 'culturally or ethnically' English
Kemi Badenoch during her speech on the final day of the Conservative Party conference. In the most impassioned part of her speech, the Tory leader accused Reform of wanting to take the UK backwards with outdated views on race
Mrs Badenoch with her husband Hamish who have three children. In her speech she said: 'I don't want to live in a country run by people who threaten journalists, call veterans traitors and debate whether my mixed-race children are English'
Mrs Badenoch said on Wednesday: 'I don't want to live in a country run by people who threaten journalists, call veterans traitors and debate whether my mixed-race children are English.
'I don't want to explain to my son when we're watching our brilliant England team play football that some people don't think our black players are English.'
The Tory leader added: 'I don't know whether you've noticed, but I am black. I am British.
'I'm proud of my country, I'm proud of our history. All that we have done, and all that we will do in the world.
'Our best days are not behind us, and we will not let this country go backwards.'
Her intervention came after Mrs Braverman, Reform's education spokeswoman, told BBC Question Time: 'Of course I'm not English. I'm not an English person - I am of Asian origin.' Her parents came from Mauritius and Kenya in the 1960s and she described herself as 'British, of Asian ethnicity'.
Mr Jenrick went further in an interview with former GB News presenter Dan Wootton when asked about the debate among the Right over whether somebody who is not white can be English.
He said there were three aspects that define whether somebody is English, saying the first element was ethnicity as 'there is such a thing as English ethnicity'.
Reform's treasury spokesman said that English cultural identity - 'somebody fully embracing of our history, our heritage, our language, our culture, our norms, our manners' - and holding a British passport also define whether somebody is English.
He added: 'Holding a passport does not mean that you are culturally English or British. And sadly, there are many, many people in this country who display that, and neither does it mean that you're ethnically English either.'
Meanwhile other senior Reform figures appeared to be uncomfortable with the position of some of their colleagues on what it means to be English.
The party's deputy leader Richard Tice repeatedly refused to say whether or not he questions Kemi Badenoch's Englishness after her speech on Wednesday.
He said that 'this whole Englishness debate is something we just haven't got time for', telling Times Radio: 'I'm just not talking about it. I think it's a complete waste of time.'
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