Suella Braverman was challenged directly by a Question Time audience member after repeating her argument that Englishness is rooted in ethnicity and ancestry.
The Reform UK MP told the BBC programme that she does not consider herself English despite being born in England, saying she sees herself as British-Asian instead.
Braverman argued that people with a long ancestral connection to England have a distinct identity which should be recognised.
One man in the audience told her exactly what he thought the effect of that argument was.
He said:
“What you’ve done is reinforce the racist argument.”
He continued:
“I have been on this planet for 54 years and the amount of times I’ve been told I’m not English, even though I was born here, if I had a penny for every time I’d be a very rich man.”
Asked by Fiona Bruce whether he considered himself English, he replied:
“Absolutely.”
Braverman then asked:
“I’m being racist against myself?”
The audience member replied:
“Basically you are.”
The exchange came during a Question Time discussion about immigration and how politicians can debate the issue without making people feel unwelcome.
Braverman says she is not English
Braverman’s comments follow a row she started last week when she said publicly that she does not consider herself English.
She wrote on X:
“As I’ve said before, I’m not English.
I’m proud to be British.”
Braverman said she was born in England, speaks English, supports the England football team and loves the country, but still rejected describing herself as English because of her Asian ancestry.
She wrote:
“Englishness is an ethnicity.”
And:
“The liberals (many of them in today’s Conservative Party) take this cosmopolitan approach to Englishness. They’re terrified of being called racist so they say that anyone, as long as they’re born here, can be English. I take the conservative approach.”
She also argued that Britain had become confused about identity because of what she called the “dogma of multiculturalism”.
Braverman was born in Harrow and raised in Wembley. Her mother was born in Mauritius to a family of Indian origin, while her father was born in Kenya and also has Indian ancestry.
‘No one’s disrespecting English people’
On Question Time, Braverman said she wanted to recognise what she described as the indigenous English population.
The audience member challenged that too.
He told her:
“You understand the word indigenous, yeah?”
And added:
“If you were born here, you’re indigenous, simple.”
Braverman said she wanted to “pay respect to the English people”.
The man replied:
“No one’s disrespecting English people.”
Braverman continued to insist there was a meaningful distinction between being British and belonging to what she described as the historic English ethnic group.
Oli Dugmore tells Braverman her argument is racist
The row did not end with the audience exchange.
Journalist Oli Dugmore later challenged Braverman from the panel.
He said the political effect of her argument was that only white people could truly be English.
Dugmore said:
“The political function of what she was saying earlier is that you can only be English if you are white.”
He then added:
“And that is a racist point of view.”
Tonight on Question Time, I debated Suella Braverman on what it means to be English. I think there’s one word for her position pic.twitter.com/lH8pH2tYgj
Fiona Bruce then tried to pin down what Braverman actually believed.
Bruce asked whether Braverman’s position was that a person could only be English if they were white.
Braverman began talking again about the earlier accusation that she was being “racist against myself”.
Bruce interrupted.
“No, he’s saying your view is that you can only be English if you’re white. Is that your view?”
Braverman did not give a direct yes or no answer.
Bruce tried again.
“Just answer that one question that Oli put to you, because that’s an allegation.”
As the exchange continued, Bruce eventually said:
“Ok, you’re not answering the question. I’m giving you lots of chances. I’ve asked you the question, and I haven’t had an answer.”
Braverman’s view has also been challenged on the right
Braverman’s argument has not only been criticised by Labour politicians or people on the left.
Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty responded to her original post by saying:
“I am English. I’m old enough to remember when considering yourself to be English meant that broadly speaking you’d been born here, grown up here, went to school here, lived here, followed English cultural customs and to all intents and purposes, were English.”
He added:
“Most normal people who describe themselves as English mean this, in much the same way as they would describe themselves as a Londoner, or a Mancunian or a Brummie. They aren’t referring to their ethnicity or trying to erase yours. It’s not complicated.”
Jacob Rees-Mogg has also rejected Braverman’s ethnic definition.
Writing in The Spectator, he argued there had never been a pure English ethnic line and pointed to centuries of migration and conquest.
He wrote:
“Even our greatest aristocrats are, in fact, descended from Norman conquerors. They are not pure-bred Englishmen. There is no such thing. There never actually has been.”
The clips quickly took off online
G.T shared the audience exchange on X.
@gingerrtom wrote:
“What you’ve done is reinforced the racist argument, the amount of times I’ve been told I’m not English… Suella Braverman tries telling this black man he can’t consider himself English. Absolutely disgusting that we have MPs in the country who talk like this openly!”
Dugmore also shared his clash with Braverman.
@OliDugmore wrote:
“Tonight on Question Time, I debated Suella Braverman on what it means to be English. I think there’s one word for her position”
BBC Question Time posted another section of the debate.
@bbcquestiontime wrote:
““If someone’s going to call themselves English, I presume you’ve got an idea in mind?” What does it mean to be ‘English’? Watch Reform UK’s Suella Braverman and Labour’s Miatta Fahnbulleh debate on #bbcqt Watch now: https://t.co/N8rHbriMfX“
“If someone's going to call themselves English, I presume you've got an idea in mind?”
What does it mean to be ‘English’? Watch Reform UK’s Suella Braverman and Labour’s Miatta Fahnbulleh debate on #bbcqt
Jordon Scott is a digital media specialist and editor at The Daily Britain. He focuses on political coverage, platform strategy, and ensuring journalism remains accessible without compromising editorial standards.
He oversees publication structure, reach, and transparency across the site.
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