Cabinet minister Kemi Badenoch has insisted that Britain is the best country in the world to black – accusing Labour of bowing before the “altar of intolerance”.
The business secretary appeared to reject a claim by home secretary Suella Braverman – a possible future leadership rival – that multiculturalism in the UK had “failed”.
Ms Badenoch, who is also equalities minister, used her conference speech in Manchester to claim that only the Tories “tell the truth” on race.
The “anti-woke” Tory condemned a left-wing “narrative that says there is no point in trying, because British society is against you and you’re better off asking for reparations, a narrative that tells children like mine that the odds are stacked against them”.
She added: “I tell my children that is the best country in the world to be black – because it’s a country that sees people, not labels.”
Ms Badenoch warned that advocates of identity politics are seeking to “re-racialise” society. The business secretary claimed Labour wanted to “bend the knee before this altar of intolerance”, and invoked the words of American civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King.
She told the Conservative Party conference that “Labour didn’t like” the government’s Inclusive Britain Report – which caused controversy by failing to acknowledge structural racism in the UK.
She added: “Conservatives want young people to be proud of their country when others want them to be ashamed. It wasn’t a tough decision for us to reject the divisive agenda of critical race theory.
“We believe, as Martin Luther King once said, people should be judged by the content of their character, not the colour of their skin. And if that puts us in conflict with those who would re-racialise society .... all I can say is bring it on.”
She added: “Let Labour bend the knee before this altar of intolerance, we will keep building a country that is in every way stronger and fairer for all.”
Ms Braverman claimed last week that multiculturalism had failed – but cabinet colleagues Jeremy Hunt and James Cleverly have also distanced themselves from her remarks at the Tory conference.
Historian Sathnam Sanghera tweeted: “Britain is the best country to be black. But also, somehow, multiculturalism has failed. Hope you’re keeping up with these Conservative pronouncements.”
Elsewhere in her speech, Ms Badenoch praised Rishi Sunak for taking “brave” decisions to delay key net-zero commitments, including moving the deadline for the sale of new petrol and diesel cars to 2035.
She compared Mr Sunak with Sir Keir Starmer, and sought to discredit the Labour leader over his past support for remain in the Brexit referendum. “The people who tell you that Brexit is the cause of every problem, do so because they think the answer to everything is the EU,” she said.
Ms Badenoch also appeared to have a dig at the left, anti-Brexit campaigners and the media for talking Britain down. “Everywhere I go other countries speak with nothing but admiration and respect for Britain,” she told the conference.
“Then I feel a twinge of sadness, because I remember that our political opponents back home and their friends in the media continue to speak about our country like it’s an irrelevant nation. We reject this narrative.”
