Rishi Sunak says British identity should not be determined by skin colour
Former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak has entered the debate over British identity, race and immigration, arguing that people born and raised in England should not have their claim to being English or British questioned because of their appearance.
"If you're born and brought up in England and view it as home, what are you other than English?" Sunak wrote on X on Sunday. He warned that denying people their Englishness or Britishness on the basis of skin colour could result in "alienation" and a "two-tier society".
Sunak linked his argument to his own childhood in Southampton and his early association with cricket. He recalled that his father's GP surgery was situated between Southampton's football ground, the Dell, and Hampshire's County Ground. Regular visits to matches during weekends and school holidays, he said, helped shape his enthusiasm for sport and his view of its place in British life.
"When I was a boy, the Tebbit test was a matter of intense debate," Sunak wrote.
The reference was to a debate associated with former Conservative Party chairman Norman Tebbit, who had questioned which cricket team immigrants from Commonwealth countries supported. Sunak said the test could be passed by anyone who supported England because they considered the country their home.
"Ten-year-old me passed the test without even knowing about it," he wrote.
Sunak said delivering the Marylebone Cricket Club's Cowdrey Lecture on Thursday led him to reflect on cricket, identity and integration in Britain. He also referred to his time as prime minister, saying the country had developed into a multi-faith and multi-ethnic democracy from which he had personally benefited.
He recalled reading a lesson at the King's coronation and lighting Diwali diyas with his daughters at Downing Street, saying neither experience had been controversial.
However, Sunak said he believed a different debate had emerged around nationality and race.
"But something else is going on - a risk that we start equating skin colour with nationality," Sunak wrote.
He said that after leaving office, questions had been raised over whether he was English because he was a "brown Hindu". During an election campaign, he also recalled being shocked after seeing footage of someone directing a racial slur at him, saying such abuse had not previously been a feature of his political life.
I was a very fortunate kid. My dad's GP surgery sat between the Dell and Hampshire's County Ground, so at weekends I could go to a game and get a lift home afterwards. It left me with a passion for both sports and a belief that sport opens a window onto who we are. When I was…
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) September 20, 2026
"But the Englishness argument was stranger still," he wrote.
"Call it the reverse Tebbit test. If you're not white, it no longer matters who you support at the cricket, because you can never be English."
Sunak also drew a distinction between his views on immigration and the question of race. He said he opposed illegal immigration and pointed to his efforts as prime minister to deport people to Rwanda.
"I think the bar for legal migration should be high," he wrote.
At the same time, Sunak argued that support for lower immigration and stronger integration should not mean defining British identity through race.
"It is entirely possible to want a radical reduction in immigration and a far more robust approach to integration, and still totally reject the attempt to turn Britishness into a DNA test," he wrote.
He also presented cricket as a shared space between different communities in Britain, noting that the sport is played by nearly every major ethnic group in the country.
Sunak contrasted his largely white rural constituents in the Dales with British-Asian children in Bradford, saying cricket was one of the things they had in common.
"If cricket can produce England teams in which every kid can see themselves, the impact will reach far beyond the boundary," Sunak wrote.
