MI5 chief Ken McCallum confirms Russia did interfere in Brexit referendum but says it had little impact – as it happened

He argued there was no evidence to suggest the result of the Brexit vote had been swayed as a result of the effort Andy Burnham promises ‘serious dialogue’ over UK’s relationship with EU Zia Yusuf , Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, has said he does not agree with his collea

He argued there was no evidence to suggest the result of the Brexit vote had been swayed as a result of the effort Andy Burnham promises ‘serious dialogue’ over UK’s relationship with EU Zia Yusuf , Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, has said he does not agree with his colleague Suella Braverman’s assertion that black people cannot be English. Asked about her views in an interview on Sky News , Yusuf said: In my view Ashley Cole is the best English fullback in history, and I won’t take any other position. So in my view, Ashley Cole is English.

I think the argument that he’s not English doesn’t hold water with me. Nasser Hussain, who I grew up watching when I went to the cricket, the idea that those people aren’t English is an alien concept to me. I would respectfully disagree with people, who make the opposite argument.

To say I’m English is to take a ‘laissez-faire, anything-goes’ attitude to ethnicity, citizenship and identity. It also denies me my Asian heritage. The liberals (many of them in today’s Conservative party) take this cosmopolitan approach to Englishness.

They’re terrified of being called racist so they say that anyone, as long as they’re born here, can be English. I take the conservative approach. Englishness is an ethnicity.

There have been English people for centuries and we need to recognise this more if we are to start taking a more muscular approach to citizenship and nationality. And no, it’s not racist to say this. Continue reading...