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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.
She wonders aloud how many generations must pass before you're English (SIX??) & concludes "it is a question without an easy answer" but that "there must be some form of consensus".There is a consensus. It's the view of almost everyone in this country that you can be English without being white.
That Suella Braverman article is staggering. An extraordinary thing to see her insist not just that ethnicity and nationality are inextricably intertwined, but that as a result she herself is inherently an Other. It is a gift to racists, but also quite sad if Braverman believes that about herself.
— Hugo Gordon (@hugogordon.bsky.social)2025-02-27T09:00:24.053Z
I don’t give a fuck about you, Suella, you’re just goading for attention as usual.But I think of your children. Who by implication you have just told the world are not English either.My heart breaks for them.
— Zoe Gardner (@zoejardiniere.bsky.social)2025-02-27T08:39:11.754Z
According to Wikipedia, Suella Braverman was born in Harrow and raised in Wembley.
— Kevin Schofield (@kevinschofied.bsky.social)2025-02-27T08:31:44.863Z
Suella Braverman has written this: "For Englishness to mean something substantial, it must be rooted in ancestry, heritage, and, yes, ethnicity."As someone who, like Suella herself, has very little "English" ethnicity in their DNA, I would like to say that Suella can, to put it bluntly, fuck off.
— Gabriel Milland (@gabrielmilland.bsky.social)2025-02-26T22:43:50.536Z
The familiar and self-defeating end point for those in structurally minoritised groups who have sought to advance their own ambition by becoming 'pick mes' to a Far/Right media which wants their subjugation.
— Jolyon Maugham (@jolyonmaugham.bsky.social)2025-02-27T08:10:56.645Z
This is the logical conclusion to her deranged, racist politics and the open sewer of our current discourse. A race now, I guess, for the first brown Tory to deport themselves to a country they don't know.
— Sathnam Sanghera (@sathnam.bsky.social)2025-02-27T07:58:44.449Z
Suella Braverman here telling herself to go back to where she didn't come from. pic.twitter.com/qVp5L3UmBM
— Mark P Lynch (@markplynch) February 27, 2025
This is such nonsense, she states that English identity is confusing for a variety of reasons and then suggests “it must be rooted in ancestry, heritage, and, yes, ethnicity” as if that solves the confusions – problem is, it doesn’t! https://t.co/F0bBDZMwAq
— Martin Robinson (@Trivium21c) February 27, 2025
Most disturbing thing I’ve read for ages.
Suella Braverman says she’s not English because her parents are ‘Indian diaspora’.
Since AD 43 England has been a transient melting pot for people from every corner of the globe.
Englishness is not connected to colour or ethnicity. https://t.co/8e0pPagai9
— Jonah (@JonahMunn) February 27, 2025
I imagine Suella Braverman who says the point is to defend Judeao-Christian heritage has not even noticed she is saying 99% of British Jews can't be English, including the third and fourth generation who have identified as English since they were in primary school
— Sunder Katwala (sundersays) (@sundersays.bsky.social)2025-02-27T07:51:40.830Z
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