If Kemi Badenoch hates identity politics, why is she using it?

The right engages in identity politics just as much as the left.

‘A rich, lefty, white male celebrity so blinded by ideology he can’t see the optics of attacking the only Black woman in government.’

That was Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch’s response this week to actor David Tennant after he – albeit clumsily – expressed support for the transgender community.

The thing is, I thought we’ve been told time and time again that the right didn’t engage in identity politics and it’s typically considered a tool of the left.

The whole furore started when the Doctor Who actor received an award at the British LGBT Awards last week and a clip of his acceptance speech went viral on social media.

In it, he expressed his wish for Badenoch to no longer exist, adding: ‘I don’t wish ill of her, I just wish her to shut up.’ He was shown to receive cheers and applause for saying this.

In calling for Badenoch to ‘shut up’, he was clearly referring to her views on trans identity, which are well known and considered controversial in some progressive circles. Why else would he be referring to her at an LGBTQ+ event?

Of course, it must have been distressing for Badenoch to hear a room of people cheering when a prominent celebrity called for her to ‘shut up’, and for her to not exist at a time where MPs live with a constant fear of violence. I do not wish to minimise that. 

However, it is also deeply ironic that her way of responding to Tennant’s retort was to cling to the politics of identity – a politics she has repeatedly said she’s against.

In 2022, she wrote in The Times that ‘identity politics is not about tolerance or individual rights but the very opposite of our crucial and enduring British values.’ While in 2020, she told The Spectator that it was wrong to ‘politicise’ skin colour and that ‘you can’t pick and choose the rules depending on the colour of someone’s skin – that is what the racists do’.

Yet, here she is in 2024 condemning ‘the optics’ of a white man ‘attacking the only Black woman in government’.

Many on the right – from fellow Minister James Cleverly to Telegraph journo Camilla Tominey or TalkTV presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer – are backing her up in this race-based victimhood.

The fact is, the right engages in identity politics just as much as the left.

Take former Home Secretary Priti Patel who, in 2020, responded to criticism of the then-Government’s record on race, saying she would ‘not take lectures’ because she has experience of being ‘racially abused in the streets’.

Or current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who, earlier this year, defended the fact his party was continuing to accept donations from a man who reportedly said he wanted Diane Abbott to be shot (for which he has apologised). Sunak stated: ‘I am pleased that the gentleman is supporting a party that represents one of the most diverse governments in this country’s history, led by this country’s first British Asian prime minister’.

As these examples make plain, using race and gender to validate or invalidate an argument is not exclusive to the left.

Identity politics is found across many sides of the political spectrum and indeed is not only used by ethnic minority politicians – Labour Leader Keir Starmer told a Party Conference in 2022 that part of the reason he was so energised about the ‘climate emergency’ was because he was ‘a father’.

It is used by all because our identities are important to us all. They are part of what makes us human.

It is natural for politicians to utilise this tool when expedient as they know what we all know – that by using their identities they will appeal to people who share them. They will cause those people to have empathy with them, to see themselves in them, to stand up for them and maybe even vote for them.

The term ‘identity politics’ is believed to be first coined by an American Black feminist group called the Combahee River Collective in 1974. When defining the term, they explained: ‘the most profound and potentially most radical politics come directly out of our own identity’.

As mainstream politicians of various stripes continue to engage in and double down on identity politics, their statement rings evermore true.

It is likely that next week we will have a Labour government for the first time in 14 years. As the Tories lick their wounds, there will be time for reflection.

I suggest that, in that time, the Tories decide how they truly feel about identity politics. Because at the moment it seems that, try as they might, they just can’t stop using it.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk. 

Share your views in the comments below.