Matt Goodwin is wrong about whiteness and Englishness – but here’s why he has struck a chord with some voters

Matt Goodwin, the Reform UK candidate for the Gorton and Denton byelection, is just one of the rightwing politicians to recently question the “Englishness” of people who aren’t white and born in England. The claim is clearly out of step with reality. Exclusivist views are certainly out there, but in the minds of an increasingly small minority. There is no popular upsurge in narrow ethno-nationalism.

On the other hand, the sudden prominence of such views marks more than the willingness of populist political forces to mobilise polarising ideas about national identities that were once beyond the pale. Claims of a racialised Englishness act as a marker for other exclusive ideas of nationhood. The role these contested issues of nationhood and identity play in our politics therefore needs to be unpicked.

Polls vary but most paint a clear picture. Only around one in ten white residents of England believe you must be white to be English. And support for that exclusive view appears to have fallen dramatically in the recent past. One set of polls showed it halving between 2012 and 2019. Though lagging some way behind, Englishness appears to be following Britishness towards greater inclusivity.

But the formation of any real national identity is a complex process that can involve heritage, birthplace, culture, language, values, institutions and ideas of sovereignty and democracy. European-wide polling suggests that belief in a “civic identity” – citizens bound together solely by adherence to fundamental principles of law and support for democracy – is restricted to small numbers of highly educated liberals.

Most conceptions of nationhood carry some sense of who the people are, how they came to be here and what they hold in common. In most nations the ability to speak the national language and willingness to observe local customs and traditions are more important than place of birth in determining whether someone can share the national identity.

Contrary to what some might expect, the UK is not an outlier. It tends to be less demanding or exclusive on these criteria than most other European nations. But recent polls show that both Englishness and Britishness (albeit to a lesser extent) carry some further qualifications of heritage and birth for many voters.

In one recent poll, around a third of residents thought heritage of more than a generation was needed to be English (though it need not be white). About 40% said you must be born in England to be English.

Other polls give a less restrictive view, but typically four out of five invest Englishness with a connection to place of birth that is more than an aspiration to be English. On the positive side, this tends to make birth, rather than ethnicity, a source of entitlement to be English. It is therefore something that can be gained by every generation.

Ethnic minorities tend to have both a more restricted understanding of Englishness – they are more likely to think English is a white and heritage identity – than do the white majority. At the same time they have a more open conception of the availability of Britishness to those not born here. Nonetheless, the trends are clearly towards a more inclusive Englishness – over two-thirds of ethnic minorities say that Englishness is open to those of all races and backgrounds, even if only a third personally identify strongly as English.

Pride and patriotism

Citizens vary in whether they carry national identity with pride and patriotism. Those who are patriotically English are usually British patriots too, while those who are “British not English” are much less patriotically British. Those who emphasise their English identity give a higher priority to national sovereignty and restricting immigration: the two issues that let English identifiers determine Brexit.

Advocates of civic nationalism as an identity often stress the importance of national institutions and shared values, but we rarely stop to ask whether this reality reflects voters’ expectations. Support for the civic principles of democracy and the rule of law are high, but beneath the surface, trust in politics and political institutions is much lower. Some feel the law is not even-handed. By abandoning solidaristic values of universalism and procedural fairness, social security no longer unites the nation.

The advocacy of ethnic Englishness may appear eccentric, but it nonetheless speaks to a wider sense of nation: socially conservative and protective of national democracy and sovereignty, demanding a more responsive political and legal system, and a welfare state that serves the people.

The problem is that advocates of civic nationalism have no alternative, progressive and inclusive story of the nation.

John Denham has previously received funding from the British Academy and the Sir Halley Stewart Trust. He is affiliated with the Labour Party