Moment black member of Question Time audience tells Suella Braverman she is 'being racist against herself' because she says she is not English

This is the moment Suella Braverman was accused by a black man of being 'racist against herself' after claiming she is not English despite being born in Britain.Reform UK's education spokesperson told the BBC's Question Time that she is 'British of Asian ethnicity' rather than English, because of her family's Asian heritage.But the former Conservative home secretary was accused by a black member of the audience in Tottenham, North London, of 'reinforcing the racist argument'.The 54-year-old man told Mrs Braverman he would be 'very rich' if he had a penny for every time he had been 'told I'm not English even though I was born here'.He then agreed with the London-born politician's suggestion that she was 'being racist against myself', to which she added: 'Right, well that makes a lot of sense.'Mrs Braverman was discussing what it means to be English as she promotes her new book 'Patriot: Empire, Betrayal and Hope' in which she traces her family tree.Her father Chris was born in Kenya and her mother Uma in Mauritius, although both were of Indian ancestry - while she also has French Creole and Portuguese roots.During QT, another audience member cited how former prime minister Rishi Sunak recently explained 'why he's English as if there was ever a doubt on the question'. Reform UK's education spokesperson Suella Braverman appears on Question Time last night A 54-year-old man in the audience in Tottenham suggested Mrs Braverman was being racistHost Fiona Bruce explained these comments came about because Mr Sunak said he was 'being described as a brown Hindu who was British but couldn't be English'.She then asked Mrs Braverman if she could explain more about her own thoughts on the subject, having 'talked about the fact that you are British but you are not English'.Mrs Braverman responded: 'Doesn't sound very controversial to me but suddenly it has become debatable. I was born in London, North London actually, in 1980.'My parents came as immigrants themselves to this country with nothing. Very grateful to Britain for the hand of friendship that Britain extended to them.'I've always considered myself British of Asian ethnicity and that's never been something that I would question. Of course I'm not English. I'm not an English person.'I am of Asian origin and in my book, I track some of my ancestry. Some of my ancestors come from India via Mauritius and Kenya all over the world but they're not English. So it would be misrepresentative of me to co-opt Englishness as an ethnicity.'She added that 'if someone like me were born in Japan, I would never call myself Japanese; or if I was born in China, I would never call myself Chinese'.Mrs Braverman continued: 'Why are the English people the only group of people on the earth who cannot have a distinct identity? That baffles me that this has suddenly become a debate and I also don't want to deny my Asian heritage.'I am British Asian and that is what millions of people consider themselves to be in this country. I don't see why that's controversial. I can be born in England. I can support the England football team. I can love England.' Suella with her parents Chris, who was born in Kenya, and Uma, who was born in MauritiusBruce then questioned her on her stance, asking 'how far back' you should go to be considered 'fully English', adding: 'Are we talking 1066, are we talking three generations?'Mrs Braverman accused her of asking the question 'a bit facetiously' and insisted there was 'no fixed date', but Bruce pressed her to explain further.Mrs Braverman told her: 'Obviously you take a reasonable approach, but my parents were not born in England, my grandparents were not born in England so in my particular instance, no, I am not of English origin.'She added: 'I'm not the one saying that it has to be five generations or four generations. 'I think it becomes pretty obvious when people have got a lineage, an ancestry, a connection to the heritage of this country which dates back a few generations. And I think that that is not unreasonable to expect of people who come to this country.'Bruce concluded: 'So, okay, a few generations. I'm not sure how many.'Later in the show, the 54-year-old audience member told Mrs Braverman: 'I think what you've done is just basically reinforce the racist argument.'I've been on this planet for 54 years and the amount of times I've been told I'm not English even though I was born here. If I'd had a penny for every time I've been given that.'Bruce asked him: 'And do you consider yourself English, can I ask you?' Suella Braverman with Rishi Sunak in May 2023 when she was home secretary and he was PM. Mr Sunak recently said he was described as a 'brown Hindu' who was British but not EnglishAnd the man replied: 'Absolutely, absolutely. So what you've done is reinforce the argument.'Mrs Braverman then asked: 'I'm being racist against myself?'The man agreed, saying 'basically you are', and she replied: 'Right. Well, that makes a lot of sense.'Mrs Braverman continued: 'I'm not going to be racist… I believe we can have a cohesive society that unites around British identity. But I also want to pay respect to the English people and I don't think that is something controversial.'The man asked her: 'No one's disrespecting English people. Do you understand what the word indigenous means? If you were born here, you're indigenous. Yeah? Simple.'Energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh, who was also on the panel, then came in and told Mrs Braverman: 'I don't know, Suella. It makes me really sad. I think the reason our politics has been so coarse around immigration are arguments that have been sort of put on display here.'I come at this issue as a first generation migrant who came to this country to seek refuge and I know that this country is a welcoming tolerant country and I'm a product of it.'It's tragic that we cannot have a sensible debate around immigration that there are these undercurrents of racism that are put into it so that we can't look at the problem. The system is broken and the two people sitting here who are part of a government that broke it.'The other panel members on the BBC One programme were the Conservative shadow business secretary Julia Lopez and the journalist and podcaster Oli Dugmore.Question Time is available to stream on BBC iPlayer here READ MORE: Britain's real racists? The Lefties who called me a 'coconut' for daring to say we must curb mass immigration: SUELLA BRAVERMAN