Britain, highly divided, warned of rise in far-right sentiments

A major study in the UK has concluded that Britain is hugely divided across cultural, age and education lines, warning of a potential rise in far-right and anti-Islam sentiments unless politicians tackle long-standing xenophobia that led to the Brexit vote.

The Guardian newspaper published the results of a survey by Hope Not Hate, an anti-fascism advocacy group, on Wednesday which showed there was a serious chasm between people living in affluent, multicultural cities and those from struggling post-industrial towns.

The study, which was based on six years of polling and focus groups covering 43,000 respondents, uncovered that people of varying attitudes on immigration and multiculturalism lived in various parts of the United Kingdom and the split was more notable in England than in Wales and Scotland.

It said socio-economic deprivation was a key factor in opposition to migrants and their arrival in Britain, adding that most of the people who disliked the migrants lived in towns or on the outskirts of cities in the Midlands or north of England.   

On the contrary, people who were defined in the report as part of a “confident multicultural” population mostly lived in major cities or close to universities, it said.

Another major finding of the study was that people in Britain were made to believe that Muslims were gradually expanding illegal settlement areas in Britain where they could have their own legal system.

Some 32 percent of respondents to a poll between 2016 and 2018 said they believed in the false notion, which was popular with a campaign for Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union before the June 2016 Brexit referendum.

In fact, some 49 percent of those who voted for Leave in the Brexit referendum believed there had been Muslim “no-go areas” in Britain governed by Sharia law.

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The study said the overall attitude of people in Britain to Islam was harsh, adding that it could be linked to an Islamophobic campaign launched after terrorist attacks in 2017 in London and Manchester.

It said anti-Muslim sentiments were more visible in deprived areas with dislike of migrants, and people living in major cities and close to universities had a softer approach to Islam.

The study said disaffections for migrants and Muslims were clearly linked with Brexit and the opposition to the EU. It recommended that the government and politicians in Britain should tackle those long-standing disaffections or otherwise face a potential rise in far-right sentiments.

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