Shabana Mahmood, Britain’s first female Muslim Home Secretary, has declared “you can be English and look like me” in an impassioned response to the 110,000 mainly white, mainly English anti-immigration demonstrators who brandished the St George's flag in central London on Saturday.
Ms Mahmood, who is of Pakistani descent, was responding after what was the biggest display of right-wing sentiment in the British capital in decades.
At times, the demonstration turned violent. Two dozen police officers were injured and 26 arrests were made in an event organised by far-right campaigner Tommy Robinson.
In a statement to Parliament on Monday, Ms Mahmoud declared, “Those who turned to violence on Saturday do not represent who this country really is.”
“We are, in truth, a tolerant country and, yes, we are a diverse one, too,” she told MPs. “You can be English with roots here that stretch back 1,000 years. But you can also be English and look like me.”
The St George's Cross – the symbol of England's patron saint – and the British flag belongs to all English people, she said. “They are symbols of unity, a kingdom united, and they must never be used to divide us.”
She also made reference to the “foreign billionaire” Elon Musk who told the rally on Saturday by video that “violence is coming” and the demonstrators needed to “fight back or die”.
The X and Tesla owner also called for the immediate dissolution of Parliament and an urgent change in the Labour government led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Mr Musk was accused by the Prime Minister’s official spokesman of threatening “violence and intimidation”.
“The UK is a fair, tolerant and decent country,” the spokesman told journalists in a Downing Street briefing. “The last thing the British people want is this sort of dangerous and inflammatory language. I don’t think the British public will have any truck with that kind of language.”
Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, the third biggest party in Parliament, urged all of Britain’s mainstream political parties to condemn Mr Musk’s attempt “to sow discord and incite violence on our streets” and interfere with British democracy. He also urged the Prime Minister to block Tesla from government contracts.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said the government had no plans to punish Mr Musk for his comments.
Mr Starmer later wrote on X that peaceful protest was “core to our country’s values” but he would not stand for assaults on police officers “or for people feeling intimidated on our streets because of their background or the colour of their skin”.
