The number of people who believe “Britishness” is something you are born with has almost doubled in two years, according to research that warns of a rising tide of ethno-nationalism in Britain.
Although a majority of the public still believe being British is rooted in shared values, a growing proportion see it as a product of ethnicity, birthplace and ancestry, according to analysis carried out by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and shared with the Guardian.
About one-third of people (36%) thought a person must be born in Britain to be truly British, up from one in five (19%) in 2023, a YouGov poll carried out this month for the thinktank found.
Supporters of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK held the most extreme views of any party backers, with 71% saying that having British ancestry was a prerequisite for someone to be truly British, and 59% saying they believed the nation was an ethnic, not a civic, community.
Strikingly, the findings suggest a significant proportion of Farage’s supporters believe being white is an important national characteristic, and that Britain has become too ethnically diverse. More than a third (37%) of Reform UK voters said they would be prouder of Britain if there were fewer people from minority ethnic backgrounds in a decade’s time, and 10% said it was important to have white skin to be a good British citizen.
The results are evidence that hard-right narratives are having some success in remoulding the public’s conception of national identity; overall, though, popular opinion still supports a progressive vision of Britishness based on shared values, not ethnicity or ancestry.
Parth Patel, an associate director at IPPR, said: “Politicians and activists on the right are trying to change how we think about ourselves and one another. They believe belonging to this nation is defined by ancient rights and historical claims, and want the rest of us to believe that too. Worryingly, they are starting to change the hearts and minds of some people in Britain.
“Having become used to opponents who challenge them mainly on grounds of economic equality, progressives now find themselves locked in conflict with those who reject far more basic tenets of human equality. We should be meeting this contest with confidence and conviction.”
According to the IPPR analysis, a majority of supporters of all big parties besides Reform, including the Conservatives, thought the nation was a civic community defined by shared values, and not an ethnic community defined by shared ancestry.
When asked what made a good British citizen, the most popular answers were obeying the law, which was chosen by 64% of those polled, raising children to be kind (62%) and working hard (48%). Just 8% said it involved sticking up for British-born people above other groups, and 3% said it involved having white skin.
When asked what would make them proud of the country in a decade’s time, people prioritised good public services and quality of life: 69% said a well-functioning NHS, 53% cited affordability and 36% housing. Significantly fewer prioritised reductions in immigration (28%) or ethnic diversity (13%).
The IPPR called on Keir Starmer to build on the contents of his speech at the Labour party conference, where he countered ethno-nationalist views, and develop a programme of national renewal founded on a clear vision of what kind of country Britain should be and what binds it together.
In his speech, the prime minister said he was engaged in a “fight for the soul of our country” with the hard right. “If you say or imply that people cannot be English or British because of the colour of their skin, that mixed-heritage families owe you an explanation, that people who have lived here for generations … should now be deported, then mark my words, we will fight you with everything we have because you are an enemy of national renewal,” he said.
Reform has faced criticism for its threat to deport hundreds of thousands of people who are legally resident in Britain by scrapping the main route to settlement. Katie Lam, a Tory shadow minister, was also criticised for endorsing mass deportations to make Britain “culturally coherent”, in remarks that were later dismissed by the party’s leader, Kemi Badenoch.
In recent months, senior politicians have warned of a surge in ethno-nationalist ideas, many of them propagated online. The Guardian reported recently that in most weeks, far-right political content appeared in the top-five stories circulating on social media, according to weekly summaries commissioned by ministers.
A far-right march organised by Tommy Robinson in Westminster in September attracted between 110,000 and 150,000 people.
The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, who is a practising Muslim and was born in Britain to Pakistani parents, said this month that she was “very proud to be a citizen of a country that is as diverse as we are”.
Mahmood, responding to the US government’s national security strategy, which criticised European countries’ migration policies and called for the restoration of “western identity”, said Britain was “a multifaith, multi-ethnic country” that “allows people to have the calling of their own conscience to live their own life free, but also has common rules that we all live by so that we live in peace together”.
Badenoch, who was born in Britain to Nigerian parents, said in an interview this summer that she had faced a wave of online “ethno-nationalism” including “lots of stuff about my race and my ethnicity”.
“They will try and use the tropes about black people – that they’re lazy, they’re corrupt or they’re all DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] hires – and it’s something which I find extraordinary because I take everyone at face value,” she said.
Nick Garland, an associate fellow at IPPR and a former political speechwriter for the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, stressed that “a vast majority of the public still believes in a nation built on shared values and common interests, not birthplace or background”.
“The urgent task for the government – and for progressives more broadly – is to give voice to this belief by setting out a compelling alternative vision of the nation: a story of who we are that looks forward, not back. The fight over what it means to be British must be met by rejecting division and reclaiming a shared, inclusive national project.”
