Podcaster claimed former prime minister not English because he is ‘brown-skinned Hindu’

Rishi Sunak has described himself as being “British, English and British Asian” in a riposte to increasing racially charged language used by figures on the right.

The UK’s first British Asian prime minister was speaking after his identity was questioned in recent debate sparked by a claim by the podcaster Konstantin Kisin that Sunak was not English because he was a “brown-skinned Hindu”.

Former Tory’s media strategy reportedly calls him ‘biggest defection story Reform has ever had’

Robert Jenrick was described as “the new sheriff in town” and the politician needed by Reform UK to give it experience and political “heft”, according to a leaked media plan for his defection prepared by his aides.

The emergence of the document, which also describes Jenrick as “the most dynamic politician in the Conservative party”, came as Zia Yusuf, Reform’s head of policy, hailed the defection, after days of silence from one of Nigel Farage’s key aides.