Census should offer black English and Asian English options, MP Josh Babarinde argues

On Tuesday, in the House of Commons, Liberal Democrat MP Josh Babarinde stood to introduce a bill that turns on a single box on a form. He described himself to MPs as a proud Englishman with proud Nigerian heritage, and said that he and his parents were born in England, grew up there, and have their home there. His point was that the census does not let people like him say so in the way he would choose.

At the 2021 census, the ethnic group question offered English only inside the white category. Babarinde told MPs that a black respondent is offered black British, and an Asian respondent is offered Asian British, but neither is offered English. What England does provide, he said, is a miscellaneous write-in box that may as well be the margin.

He contrasted that with the rest of Great Britain. The Welsh census offers a black Welsh category, he said, and the Scottish census offers options such as Scottish Asian. His proposal, nicknamed the St George's Bill and formally titled the English Ethnic Identity (census particulars) Bill, would bring the next census in England into line, allowing people to define themselves as black English or Asian English.

The bill has cross-party backing. Supporters include Labour's David Lammy, a former deputy prime minister, and Conservative Sir James Cleverly. In a statement, Lammy called it quite absurd that neither he nor his mixed heritage children can describe themselves as black or mixed race and English on the form. He said he has long campaigned for England to match the position in Wales and Scotland, and urged an end to what he called backward racial gatekeeping.

Babarinde told the BBC that most people in the country believe you do not have to be white to be English. He said he acted because some corners of politics are trying to gatekeep Englishness for people of a particular colour. In his speech he said he had received death threats for daring to say so. He argued that English ethnicity is real but has never been a single bloodline, noting that even the Royal Family has German roots, and asked whether the King is not English either. He added that his mother's side of the family has been English for as far back as it has been traced.

He named Suella Braverman as one of those who have questioned the Englishness of people like him. In 2025, when she was still a Conservative MP, Braverman wrote in the Daily Telegraph that she was British Asian and could not claim to be English, despite being born and educated in England. She has since defected to Reform UK, and in recent weeks she has repeated her position on X. Saying she is English, she wrote, would take a laissez-faire, anything-goes attitude to ethnicity, citizenship and identity, and would deny her Asian heritage. She also said Englishness is an ethnicity, that there have been English people for centuries, and that it is not racist to say so.

Babarinde used the ten-minute rule, which gives an MP up to ten minutes to argue for a private member's bill. No MP chose to speak against it. He has asked for the bill to return on 23 April 2027, St George's Day, for its second reading debate.

That date may matter more as a marker than a milestone. The bill is unlikely to be considered further in its current form because of a lack of parliamentary time. Private member's bills are often used to press ministers on an issue and to show how much support an idea commands, and the list of names behind this one, from Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat benches, is part of that case.