English identity 'under threat' claims Robert Jenrick, as Tory MP blames mass immigration and 'woke culture'
20 September 2024, 07:15 | Updated: 20 September 2024, 07:18
Mass immigration and woke culture are leading England into a national identity crisis, Robert Jenrick has claimed.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
The Tory leadership hopeful has blamed immigration for what he considers to be a growing identity crisis, explaining the ties that bind the nation together are beginning to "fray".
The Conservative leadership candidate said the scale of net migration, which peaked at 764,000 in 2022, had created “profound challenges” for society.
Mr Jenrick also went as far as to suggest this crisis was a contributing factor to this summer's riots, with unrest spreading across the country in the wake of the Southport knife attack which killed three young girls.
Expressing the views on Thursday, the MP for Newark said the "dismantling of our national culture" combined with mass immigration, as well as the "metropolitan establishment" was putting English identity at risk.
Jenrick said immigration "has had a clear impact on our culture, customs and cohesion".
It comes as Consrvative leadership rival, James Cleverly, described himself as "boringly middle class" after Kemi Badenoch claimed she became "working class" following a stint working at McDonald’s.
"The combination of unprecedented migration alongside the dismantling of our national culture, non-integrating multiculturalism and the denigration of our identity has presented huge problems," he wrote in a piece for the Mail Online.
"Taken together, the attitudes and policies of our metropolitan establishment have weakened English identity. They have put the very idea of England at risk," he added.
The leadership hopeful cited the figures from a report produced by the Adam Smith Institute (ASI), a free market think tank, which recommended the abolition of all graduate visas.
It suggested that net migration should be capped in the tens of thousands - a pledge made by Mr Jenrick, alongside fellow leadership hopeful Tom Tugendhat.
Read more: Keir Starmer uses Arsenal hospitality 'for work reasons', says Labour MP
Around 114,000 visas were granted to foreign students in 2023.
Mr Jenrick went as far to suggests that the suppression of England’s identity played into this summer's riots, which took place in the wake of the Southport attack on a children's yoga class by a knifeman.
He added that it will be impossible to "heal our divided nation if we refuse to confront complex issues about identity".
He blamed "inter-communal violence, radicalisation and diminishing trust in our communities" for unrest across the country, something that "came to a head during the summer riots".
"As a consequence, a frank discussion is needed about the state of the nation [and] the state of England, in particular – as England is where most of the rioting occurred, and it was the St George’s flag that some misappropriated."
"The public have consistently voted against all of this. Those in Westminster are underestimating the depth of anger in the country," he added.
