Braverman's remarks on Englishness and immigration spark clashes on BBC Question Time

Suella Braverman, now Reform UK's education spokesperson, appeared on BBC Question Time on Thursday 1 October, in an episode held in Tottenham. 1 2 The other panellists were energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh, Conservative shadow business secretary Julia Lopez and the journalist and podcaster Oli Dugmore. 1 The first topic was about making immigrants feel welcome. Braverman said she did not consider herself an English person, saying she is of Asian origin, and asked why English people were the only group who could not have a distinct identity. 2 1

Braverman said it becomes obvious when people have a lineage, ancestry or connection to the country's heritage dating back a few generations, and that expecting this of people who come to the country is not unreasonable. 1 2 Braverman also said the question about Englishness had arisen because of the "utter failure by the Conservative government on mass immigration". Fahnbulleh could be heard saying Braverman had been in the Conservative government, and Lopez said "Home Secretary". The Daily Mirror reported that the audience laughed and clapped. 1 Braverman replied that this was the reason they left the Conservative party. They said the party had betrayed the British people on legal migration and that they had "battled from within for years to cut visas" and been blocked. 1

A male audience member told Braverman that they had "reinforce[d] the racist argument". He said he had been told for 54 years that he was not English although he was born in the UK. Asked whether she was being racist against herself, he said "Basically, you are". He also said that anyone born in the country is indigenous. 2 Later, Dugmore said the political function of Braverman's argument was that one can only be English if white, which he called a racist point of view. Host Fiona Bruce repeatedly asked Braverman whether they believed that only white people can be English, and said she was not getting an answer. According to the Daily Express, Braverman did not answer directly and said Dugmore was calling them racist against themselves. 2 After the show Dugmore posted on X that there was "one word for her position". Braverman replied that he had called them racist "in a contorted way" and had lowered the tone with "divisive and inflammatory language". They said Reform needed security because of such language, and that the left's smears would not bully them into silence. 1