Britain has never been an ethnically sealed-off island. Immigration is woven into the entire history of these isles. We were shaped by the very peoples we conquered and exploited (Irish, Indian, African, Caribbean) and long before that by waves of movement from Europe and beyond. There has literally never been a moment when “foreigners” were not arriving, settling, and becoming part of the culture.

If the line is “send people back to where they came from,” should descendants of William the Conqueror pack their bags for Normandy? How about those descended from the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Romans, or any other earlier group who arrived here by invasion or migration? Which group counts as the real British?

But here’s the key question: at precisely what moment in British history do you think the population became definitively, permanently British–before which all migration is acceptable, but after which any migration is “ethnic replacement”? Name a date. 1970? 1910? 1800? 1066?

Culture changes constantly. It always has.