Overview
- A YouGov poll for IPPR reports 36% now say birth in Britain is required to be truly British, up from 19% in 2023.
- Support for ethnic definitions is concentrated among Reform UK backers, with 71% prioritising British ancestry and 59% viewing the nation as an ethnic rather than civic community.
- Party splits are stark: 56% of likely Conservative voters rate ancestry as important, compared with 37% of Liberal Democrats, 27% of Labour supporters and 19% of Greens.
- Most respondents still lean civic, citing obeying the law (64%), raising kind children (62%) and working hard (48%) as hallmarks of good citizenship, with only 3% saying white skin matters.
- Coverage situates the shift within wider pressures, noting about 40,600 Channel crossings this year, a 69,000-case asylum appeals backlog, and a September march led by Tommy Robinson that drew well over 100,000 people, as IPPR presses leaders—echoing Keir Starmer’s stance—to articulate an inclusive national story.