Burnham backs black English and Asian English census options

The ethnicity question on the UK census currently offers only one way to be English: a box labelled white English. A bill introduced this week by Liberal Democrat MP Josh Babarinde would change that, creating options such as black English and Asian English — and Andy Burnham has indicated he would support it.

At prime minister's questions, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey pressed for the government to back the bill, calling it wrong to claim that people must be white to be English. Some members of the House of Commons argue exactly that, Davey said, describing the position as a racist ideology. He noted that Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, has also rejected the idea that Englishness requires whiteness — leaving the dispute not as a simple left-right fight but as a contest over who defines the category.

Burnham, responding to Davey, said he had not looked at the detail of the bill but would want to support it. He said it would take on "poisonous politics" from some in the Commons who seek to divide people, and framed it as part of moving on from "a decade of division and drift" and bringing people back together. He also praised Badenoch for her comments on race, and said he is interested in working with anyone in the House who shares that aim.

A census is not a neutral counting exercise. The categories on the form determine which groups exist in official statistics, and official statistics determine which identities the state can measure, target and fund. The current form records Englishness in one variant only; Babarinde's bill would convert an ethnic identity into an administrative one, with the state as arbiter of who qualifies. The same instrument that is being enlisted to fight "poisonous politics" is the instrument that decides which politics get counted at all.

Burnham conceded he had not yet read the detail of the bill he wants to support.