Liberal Democrat president Josh Babarinde has brought a cross-party bill to the House of Commons that would broaden the range of ethnicity options in the census, enabling Britons to define themselves as “Black English” and “Asian English”.
The proposed legislation, which Babarinde refers to as the “St George’s bill”, is also sponsored by Labour MP and former deputy prime minister David Lammy, Conservative MPs Sir James Cleverly and Mark Pritchard, and Liberal Democrat MPs Victoria Collins, Munira Wilson and Layla Moran.
The bill comes amid a row over who can identify as English, after Reform UK MP Suella Braverman insisted that Englishness is “an ethnicity” for which she does not qualify.
Braverman, the former Conservative home secretary who defected to Reform in January, first articulated her position on Englishness last year, arguing that national identity is rooted in ancestry and ethnicity. She said she considered herself British Asian but not English due to a lack of “generational ties to English soil”.
Braverman has since defended and doubled down on these remarks.
Introducing his bill on Tuesday afternoon under the 10-minute rule procedure, Babarinde asked: “Do you have to be white to be English, Madam Deputy Speaker?”
He answered: “This St George’s bill says no, you do not.”
Babarinde, the MP for Eastbourne, said that in the ethnicity question in the census, “the only box that says English sits under the white category”.
He said: “If you are black, the form offers you Black British. If you are Asian, it offers you Asian British, but not English.”
He noted that the Welsh census offered a “Black Welsh” category and the Scottish census “Scottish Asian”.
The Eastbourne MP added: “Yet the best England offers in our census is a miscellaneous write-in box that may as well be the margin.”
Babarinde said the bill “takes nothing away from anyone”, stating: “White English stays exactly where it is, and so does Black British, Asian British, and the rest. This bill simply adds choices that reflect how people already see themselves, because it is not for politicians to decide who is English. That is for people to say themselves.”
He said he had received death threats since announcing the bill, including messages telling him: “You’re not English and never will be. Your family is foreign and will always be foreign.”
He said they were “death threats for daring to say that you don’t have to be white to be English”.
Babarinde, who has Nigerian heritage but was born and raised in England, said English ethnicity “has never been one bloodline”, pointing to the Angles, Danes, Normans, Huguenots and the Windrush generation.
He said: “Even our royal family has German roots… Is the king not English either?”
Babarinde concluded: “Englishness is not a pie that gets smaller with every slice taken from it. Englishness is a chorus that grows louder with every voice. Nationalism says that this country is mine, not yours. But patriotism says this country is all of ours, and in this house, we must be patriots.”
As is standard under the 10-minute rule procedure, MPs agreed to the bill’s introduction without a vote.
Babarinde scheduled the second reading of his bill for St George’s Day, Friday 23 April 2027. However, as a private members’ bill, the proposed legislation is unlikely to receive further consideration by MPs.
Babarinde was elected to the position of Liberal Democrat party president in November 2025. He defeated Prue Bray with 68.8% of the vote, assuming office on 1 January 2026. Notable previous presidents include Lord Pack (2020-2026), Tim Farron (2011-2015) and Simon Hughes (2005-2009).
Josh Babarinde on how the Liberal Democrats can find their voice
