Matt Goodwin, the Reform UK candidate for the Gorton and Denton byelection, is just one of the rightwing politicians to recently question the “Englishness” of people who aren’t white and born in England. The claim is clearly out of step with reality. Exclusivist views are certainly out there, but in the minds of an increasingly small minority. There is no popular upsurge in narrow ethno-nationalism.
On the other hand, the sudden prominence of such views marks more than the willingness of populist political forces to mobilise polarising ideas about national identities that were once beyond the pale. Claims of a racialised Englishness act as a marker for other exclusive ideas of nationhood. The role these contested issues of nationhood and identity play in our politics therefore needs to be unpicked.
Polls vary but most paint a clear picture. Only around one in ten white residents of England believe you must be white to be English. And support for that exclusive view appears to have fallen dramatically in the recent past. One set of polls showed it halving between 2012 and 2019. Though lagging some way behind, Englishness appears to be following Britishness towards greater inclusivity.
