Potential Civil War Linked to Identity Politics, Warns Kemi Badenoch
Conflict over identity politics in the UK could lead to civil war in the long term, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has warned.
In an interview for the BBC Radio 4 documentary England's Identity Crisis, Badenoch highlighted rising tensions as groups on both the left and right increasingly direct hostility towards people of all ethnicities.
The Conservative leader criticised political parties that exploit these conflicts to appeal to voters from specific communities, a strategy she believes could eventually provoke civil war.
The interview took place prior to heightened political tensions following the release of bodycam footage showing the handcuffing of murdered teenager Henry Nowak while he lay dying.
Both Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Badenoch have urged politicians to avoid inflaming divisions after public outcry over Nowak's murder and subsequent protests in Southampton.
Badenoch's Comments on Rising Hostility and Political Conflict
Speaking to the BBC before the sentencing of Nowak's killer, Vickrum Digwa, Badenoch stated:
"This is not a racist country. But now we are seeing more and more hostility to people of every ethnicity, whether they're English or not English, because people are bringing political conflict into an area where we didn't have political conflict.
And it's the political conflict, I think, that is creating this tension.
This is why it's really important that politicians understand this properly and have policies that make a difference, rather than use the political conflict as a way to get some votes from one particular community.
Parties which do that, politicians who do that, they may get to benefit in the short term, but in the long term, that's how you end up with civil war."
When asked if avoiding societal fracturing was key to preventing civil war, Badenoch replied:
"We definitely need to avoid that fracturing, but we also need to focus on assimilation."
Although Badenoch did not specify political parties, she previously condemned separatist campaigning in Urdu by the Green Party during the Gorton and Denton by-election in February 2025.
Hannah Spencer won that seat for the Green Party of England and Wales with a majority of 4,402 votes. The Green Party was contacted for comment.
Long-Term Threat and Political Context
Badenoch emphasised that the threat she described is long term. Asked if the UK is currently at risk of civil war, she said:
"Not any time soon. No, I don't think we're potentially in a civil war scenario now.
But if we don't sort it now, then we're leaving a much worse country to our children. We're leaving them to sort out some very complicated things."
The debate over English national identity has intensified over the past year, with some right-wing figures asserting that Englishness is tied to ancestry and cannot be acquired.
This perspective gained attention in February 2025 when Russian-born podcaster Konstantin Kisin suggested that Rishi Sunak should be considered British but not English due to his "brown Hindu" background.
Kisin made these remarks after political journalist Fraser Nelson stated on the Triggernometry podcast that the Southampton-born former Conservative prime minister is wholly English.
GB News presenter and Reform UK supporter Matt Goodwin expressed agreement with the ancestry-based view of Englishness on the Radio 4 documentary, stating:
"I view Britishness as a nationality and Englishness as an ethnicity."
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, however, has stated he does not wish to define Englishness along ethnic lines.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, speaking for the documentary, criticised the notion that nationality must be linked to ancestry. Nandy, of mixed Indian and British heritage, said:
"I do think it is a bit offensive to be honest. But I also think if it's designed to sort of appeal to working class communities like mine in Wigan, I don't think it has that effect at all."
A 2024 poll by More in Common found that 74% of English people believe someone can be English regardless of skin colour or ethnic background.
Badenoch on Englishness and Nationalist Influence
Badenoch acknowledged that part of Englishness relates to ancestry but emphasised a civic component involving emotional commitment to the country's culture and values. She said:
"I believe that I am English when it comes to that civic identity. It's where I live. It's where I love, it's the football team that I support. But it's not in my blood. But it is in my children's blood and this is why I say it's a spectrum. It's very complicated."
She also attributed some of the deteriorating atmosphere to nationalists in Scotland and Wales, who currently govern both devolved administrations for the first time.
In explaining her concerns about the long-term risk of civil war, Badenoch criticised elements on both the left and right. She reproached some on the left for attacking English identity through criticism of the empire and use of terms like "white privilege," which she said provokes a backlash fostering ethno-nationalism — the belief that national identity is solely ancestry-based.
She concluded:
"We should stop trying to look for different ways to divide people and look for ways to bring people together."
England's Identity Crisis airs on BBC Radio 4 at 1:30pm on Sunday 7 June and is available on .
