Suella Braverman just claimed she “will never be truly English” – and stunned the internet in the process.
The Tory MP and former home secretary said she was born in England, “raised speaking the Queen’s English and educated in England” but “I am not English”.
Braverman noted that her parents, part of the Indian diaspora, were born in Kenya and Mauritius, but claimed they are also not English, despite having British citizenship.
“How many generations must pass before one can claim to be English? Five? Six? It is a question without an easy answer,” she said.
That would mean a person would have to know their ancestors have been born and raised in England since at least the 1800s to be known as English, under Braverman’s definition.
She also alleged that Englishness is “rooted in ancestry, heritage and yes ethnicity – not just residence or fluency”.
Writing in The Telegraph, she said that “Britain, in particular England, is in the throes of an identity crisis”.
She claimed the inability to explain what makes someone or something English “is at the heart of the crisis”, especially as political leaders are “hesitant to assert Englishness for fear of being labelled nationalistic or xenophobic”.
Braverman is known for championing the failed plan to deport “illegal” immigrants to Rwanda, crackdown on public protests and alarming claims about “Islamists running Britain”.
Pointing to just one of her many shocking remarks about British culture – her claim that “multiculturalism has failed” in the UK – Braverman said: “We are now living in the wreckage of that failure.”
The MP for Fareham and Waterlooville then suggested that she was sure her views would “send progressive elites into a tailspin” and may soon be accused “of being a fascist”.
“But we – especially those of us on the Right – must stop being so squeamish about national identity,” Braverman said.
Unsurprisingly, the internet was not unconvinced by her argument.
Critics accused her of doing anything for trying to do anything for attention, and dubbed her a “pick me” – a slang phrase meaning she is desperate to gain acceptance – for people who are on the political right.