@cspanofficial: Kemi Badenoch, the leader of Britain's Conservative Party, sought to distance her party from the right-wing populist Reform U.K. Party, denouncing some of its members for questioning whether Black people can be English. "To those who say 'unite the right,' we are not uniting with that," Ms. Badenoch, the first Black leader of a major British political party, said in her keynote address at the Tories' annual conference in Birmingham. Reform U.K., led by Nigel Farage, is polling ahead of the Conservative Party, which was booted from power in 2024 after 14 years in government. The divide on the British right could benefit the Labour Party when the next general election is held, which must be called by 2029 but could come sooner. "I don't want to live in a country run by people who threaten journalists, call veterans traitors and debate whether my mixed-race children are English. I don't want to explain to my son, when we're watching our brilliant England team play football, that some people don't think our Black players are English," Ms. Badenoch said. "We must not let these people take us backwards. That is not the country we are. I don't know whether you've noticed, but I am Black. I am British. I'm proud of my country, I'm proud of our history." #cspan #unitedkingdom #conservativeparty #news #reform

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Wednesday 07 October 2026 19:01:09 GMT