There’s a sadness about former Home Secretary Suella Braverman not realising she’s a laughing stock. Her toxic, xenophobic rhetoric isn’t funny. And never will be. Here’s why. Speaking on the BBC’s Question Time, Braverman said she considers herself British but not English, claiming “it would be misrepresentative” of her “to co-opt Englishness as an ethnicity”.
Co-panellist Oli Dugmore condemned her remarks as “a racist point of view”, adding “the political function of what she was saying is that you can only be English if you are white”.
Under proper scrutiny from host Fiona Bruce, who pressed her on whether this reflected her view, Braverman blustered, spluttered, and crumbled. “You’re not answering the question. I’m giving you lots of chances. I haven’t had an answer,” Fiona concluded.
Think about it. Anthony Joshua, Marcus Rashford, Idris Elba, Ian Wright, Tessa Sanderson, Denise Lewis, Bukayo Saka – by Braverman’s reckoning, none of them qualify as English.
That Braverman ever held one of the most powerful offices of state in this country says it all about this shameful period in modern British history.
Three years ago I described her as the most dangerous politician of recent times. In a field that included Priti Patel and ex-prime ministers Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson, that takes some doing. But Braverman, more than ever, is still determined to use her colour to run cover for racist debate and policy.
She is still happy to demean and debase herself to amplify a conversation that in modern Britain should never, ever be taking place.
Hours after humiliating herself as the audience laughed at her on Question Time, Braverman hit back at journalist Oli Dugmore.
“You’ve called me racist this evening albeit in a contorted way,” she tweeted, “but in doing so you’ve lowered the tone of the debate with divisive and inflammatory language. And absurdly, you’re suggesting that I’m being racist against myself.”
Newsflash, Mrs B. Oli is absolutely right. And as for your attempt to use asinine, archaic tactics to suggest that because he is white, he is disqualified from describing you as racist, no. In the modern era, everyone is wise to that.
They know some political parties and even some companies use people willing to weaponise their colour and try to frighten critics off.
Disagree? Try spouting the kind of thing Suella says in your office, factory, college, school or social setting and see how you get on. You’d very likely get the interview without coffee with HR. Because you really can be a person of colour and be racist.
And by any definition, Braverman’s language qualifies as racial exclusion. She is prepared to disqualify herself from Englishness in a bid to legitimise the exclusion of millions.
That racial nationalism leaves families and people of colour in danger. Even recent history – the indiscriminate targeting of Black and Brown people in two of the last three summers – has shown us all where the language and politics of extremism leads us.
Yet Braverman pops up on whatever broadcast outlet will have her to shotgun it willingly. She’s been at it for years, first as Conservative Home Secretary when she stoked tensions with sweeping generalisations about Pakistani men and grooming gangs, despite a report from her own department making clear most gangs are made up of white men.
Now she is at it for Reform. And it is to this country’s shame that her vile narrative, equating Englishness to colour, is now being discussed on mainstream TV media.
The hard right leave her to it as she’s their talent. Born in Harrow, educated at Cambridge, a leading politician for 30 years, now poisoning political discourse. I’ve said it before in this column and I’ll say it again: there are millions of good people in this country being groomed to fear people who look like Suella Braverman – by Braverman herself.
Her politics and those of her party represent extreme right-wing views that continue to be the biggest threat to our democracy. Don’t allow her to divide us. Don’t allow them to succeed.