The next census should include more ethnicity options to allow people to define themselves as black English or Asian English, according to a group of MPs.
Liberal Democrat MP Josh Babarinde told the BBC that “most people” in the country believe “you don’t have to be white to be English”, as he called for the categories to be updated in a similar way to changes in Wales and Scotland.
At the 2021 census, the ethnic group section saw English offered only within the white category.
Babarinde’s proposal, dubbed the “St George’s Bill”, aims to broaden the options and its supporters include Labour’s David Lammy and Conservative Sir James Cleverly. It was tabled in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
In his speech to introduce his private member’s bill (PMB), Babarinde told MPs he is a “proud Englishman” and has “proud Nigerian heritage”.
He said: “But my parents and I were born in England, we grew up in England, our home is in England, yet some voices attempt to reduce Englishness to a skin colour and to a bloodline.
“Well, if we’re going to go down that path, my mum’s side of the family has been English for as far back as we have traced.”
The Eastbourne MP said he had received “death threats for daring to say that you don’t have to be white to be English”.
He added “English ethnicity is real” before arguing it is a “matter of historical fact that it has never been one bloodline” and “even our Royal Family has German roots”.
“Is the King not English either, I ask.”
Addressing the ethnicity section of the census, Babarinde said the “only box that says English sits under the white category”.
He added: “If you are black, the form offers you black British, if you are Asian, it offers you Asian British, but not English.
“Now, the same question in the Welsh census offers a black Welsh category. In Scotland, the census offers Scottish Asian, for example.
“Yet the best that England offers in our census is a miscellaneous write-in box that may as well be the margin.”
Lammy, a former deputy prime minister, said in a statement: “It is quite absurd that neither I or my mixed heritage children can describe themselves as black or mixed race and English on our census form.
“I have long campaigned for us to change to the position enjoyed by others in Wales and Scotland. We have to end this backward racial gatekeeping.”
