Q&A: Is Rishi Sunak English – or British?

2026-02-06

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To submit your urgent questions to Michael and Maddie, visit spectator.com/quiteright.In this week’s Q&A, Michael and Maddie unpack the controversy over whether Rishi Sunak is English or British – and why a debate about national identity has become so politically charged. Is Englishness a civic identity, an ethnic one, or something more elusive? And why has the Labour party increasingly reached for accusations of racism when the question is raised at all?Also this week: are claims that Britain is drifting towards civ...

To submit your urgent questions to Michael and Maddie, visit spectator.com/quiteright.

In this week’s Q&A, Michael and Maddie unpack the controversy over whether Rishi Sunak is English or British – and why a debate about national identity has become so politically charged. Is Englishness a civic identity, an ethnic one, or something more elusive? And why has the Labour party increasingly reached for accusations of racism when the question is raised at all?

Also this week: are claims that Britain is drifting towards civil unrest alarmist scaremongering – or a warning we should take seriously?

And finally, they reflect on the earliest political moments that shaped them – from Margaret Thatcher and the Falklands to Tony Blair, Princess Diana, and the politics of the countryside.

Produced by Oscar Edmondson

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