Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick clashed with a Sky News presenter as he repeatedly failed to explain what he meant by “English identity”.
In an article for the Daily Mail, the former government minister said mass migration had “dismantled” the country’s culture and caused “huge problems”.
But interviewed by Sky’s Matt Barbet, Jenrick was unable to define what English identity actually is.
He said: “I think it is incredibly important that just as Scottish and Welsh leaders speak up for their distinct national identities, so do English politicians as well.
“And I think the fact that too few have has been one of the root causes why our children are not being taught to understand and to celebrate our history in schools, why our public institutions in England have been too fast to denigrate our culture.”
As Jenrick continued, Barbet told him: “I’m going to have to interrupt you there, sorry. What is English identity?”
The former immigration minister replied: “Well just as every nation has its own distinct history and culture, so does ours in England.”
The presenter then asked: “What is it? What is English identity?”
Jenrick said: “It’s the history and the culture of our country. I think England has an incredibly proud history. I think we have achieved so much in the world and we should be celebrating that, we should be teaching it to our children, our public institutions should be ensuring it is passed on to the next generation, not carelessly denigrated and dismissed.
“And we should be ensuring that we don’t lose it through mass migration and having such large numbers of people coming into our country in every year.”
He said that had made it “very challenging to successfully integrate people” in the UK.
Barber then told him: “If you can’t describe what English identity is, how is anybody coming here meant to understand that?”
Jenrick said: “Well I don’t think, with great respect, you distil the identity and the history of England into a soundbite, like you’re asking of me.”
The presenter hit back: “You’ve tried to distil it in an op-ed for the Daily Mail , haven’t you? That’s what you’ve tried to do.”
A clearly-irritated Jenrick replied: “You are trying to dismiss an English politician speaking about our national identity. I think it’s incredibly important that we do talk about it.”
Asked for “some examples of what English identity represents”, Jenrick said: “To me it is the great history of our country, it is the great things that our country, England, has achieved in the world. It’s our values, it’s the courtesies and manners that we have as a nation.
“I don’t think you would be asking a Scottish politician or a Welsh politician what is Scottish identity or Welsh identity.”
But Barbet told him that he “would be asking them the same thing”.
Jenrick is one of the four remaining candidates in the race to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative leader, alongside Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat.