‘Reverse Tebbit test’: UK's ex-PM Rishi Sunak warns against judging who is British by skin colour

Former British prime minister Rishi Sunak has warned against equating skin colour with nationality, arguing that Britain risks creating different classes of citizens based on when they or their families arrived in the country.

Sunak, the first politician of Indian heritage to become Britain's prime minister, made the remarks in his regular Sunday Times column after delivering the Marylebone Cricket Club's Cowdrey Lecture at Lord's Cricket Ground last week.

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Reflecting on race, identity and integration, Sunak said Britain's democratic achievement was facing pressure from several directions, including concerns over Islamism, reactions to the October 7 attack in Israel and the failure of successive governments to adequately control immigration.

“There is, though, something else going on: a risk that we start equating skin colour with nationality. Or that we create different classes of Briton, treating those who arrived more recently as incapable of ever being as British as those who were here in 1707, regardless of how well integrated or patriotic they are,” he wrote.

From the Tebbit test to a ‘reverse’ test

Sunak invoked the “Tebbit Test”, coined by Conservative MP Norman Tebbit in 1990, which used support for the England cricket team as a measure of integration among migrants.

“For all the criticism it received, this was a Test that anyone could pass. If you supported England because you now saw it as home, you were part of the team regardless of the colour of your skin,” Sunak wrote.

He said his own childhood experience illustrated that idea. “Born in Southampton, I would have found it odd not to support England, Hampshire and the Saints,” he wrote, describing his identity as both English and Hindu.

But Sunak said he had encountered a “reverse Tebbit test” during his time as prime minister, under which non-white people could never be considered English regardless of their loyalties.

“In this world, if you're not white it doesn't matter who you support at the cricket: you can never be English. This reverse Tebbit test is impossible for any non-white person to pass,” he wrote.

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Sunak turns to cricket as bridge

Sunak said sport, particularly cricket, could help integration because it is played across major ethnic communities in Britain.

He pointed to his own time in government, saying he had sought to ensure more children in England could play cricket.

“We cannot allow race to be reintroduced into our politics. We cannot allow Briton to be set against Briton,” he concluded.