Worth a read 👇 Zia Yusuf on Suella Braverman’s comments about being English Yusuf: “Well, she's entitled to her view. I'm a Chelsea fan (I might lose some voters for that statement) and in my view Ashley Cole is the best English fullback in history, and I won't take any other position. So in my view, Ashley Cole is English. The argument that he's not English doesn't hold water with me. But I will also say, I speak to a lot of people in this country who are concerned legitimately, with the fact that, if you are white English in many of the league tables that matter, for example, educational attainment, access to our best elite universities, pay inside the civil service, you're often right at the very bottom of those league tables and nobody really seems to care about that. and so I think this is a very nuanced issue. And people can have different views.” SR: A lot of people would have concerns about immigration. But that is a different thing from effectively judging someone on the colour of their skin. If you're getting into an argument about whether Ashley Cole or Bukayo Saka or Jude Bellingham are English, have you basically lost the argument? Yusuf: I can only talk about my views on these matters. Right. And I do think it is important that we listen to people who are worried about some of the demographics in this country. I think that there are some legitimate arguments that they can make about that. But I will also say, every single person that you just mentioned there, whether it's Saka, Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Nasser Hussain, who I grew up watching when I went to the cricket, the idea that those people aren't English, is an alien concept to me. I would respectfully disagree with people, who make the opposite argument. SR: Do you identify as English yourself? Yusuf: Well, I was born in Scotland and I grew up in England. So, you know, I'm not sure where I would fall in that regard, I don't think I'd have much of a claim to stake even if I tried. Because, as I said, I was born in Scotland.

The strongest section of Kemi Badenoch's speech so far: "To those who say “unite the right”... we are not uniting with THAT. I don’t want to live in a country run by people who threaten journalists, call veterans traitors and debate whether my mixed-race children are English. "I don’t want to explain to my son, when we’re watching our brilliant England team play football, that some people don’t think our black players are English. "I remember back in the day when Ian Wright and John Barnes were playing - nobody was questioning whether they were English. We certainly didn’t have sitting MPs questioning whether they were English. "We must not let these people take us backwards. That is not the country we are. 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."