Don’t Tell Me My Kids Aren’t English, Badenoch Lashes Out At Reform UK

UK Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, has criticised lawmakers in Reform UK over what she described as attempts to question the English identity of people from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Badenoch said she would not want her children to grow up in a country where journalists are threatened, veterans are branded traitors, or the Englishness of people from minority backgrounds is questioned.

Speaking on the controversy, Badenoch said she did not want to explain to her son why some people might refuse to recognise Black England players as 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,” she said.

She recalled former England internationals Ian Wright and John Barnes, saying their English identity was never publicly questioned when they represented the national team.

“I remember back in the day when Ian Wright and John Barnes were playing. Nobody was questioning whether they were English. We certainly didn’t have sitting MPs questioning whether they were English,” she said.

Badenoch warned that such arguments could take Britain backwards, insisting that they did not reflect the country she believed in.

“We must not let these people take us backwards. That is not the country we are,” Badenoch said.

She also accused Reform UK MPs of openly questioning the identities of people from ethnic minority backgrounds, drawing a sharp distinction between the Conservatives and the party.

“They are not like us. We are not like them. We are different. We are the Conservative Party,” she said.