New research shows a sharp rise in Britons who believe Briton is something you are born with, fuelling concerns over growing ethno-nationalism.
According to research done by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and shared with the Guardian, a growing percentage of people see being British as a result of ethnicity, birthplace, and lineage, despite the fact that the majority of people still think it is based on shared values.
According to a YouGov survey conducted this month for the think tank, approximately one-third of respondents (36%) said that a person must be born in Britain to be truly British, up from one in five (19%) in 2023.
Of all party supporters, those who supported Nigel Farage's Reform UK had the most extreme opinions. 71% of them said that being British required having British ancestry, and 59% said that the nation was an ethnic rather than a civic community.
Remarkably, the results indicate that a sizable segment of Farage's fans think that being white is a crucial national attribute and that Britain has grown too racially diverse. Ten percent of Reform UK voters believed that having white skin was essential to being a good British citizen, and more than a third (37%) said they would be more proud of Britain if there were fewer individuals from diverse ethnic origins in ten years.
The findings show that hard-right narratives are somewhat successful in changing the public's perception of national identity; generally, however, public opinion continues to favor a progressive definition of Britishness based on shared values rather than heritage or ethnicity.
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.”
The majority of supporters of all major parties other than Reform, including the Conservatives, believed that the country was a civic community defined by common values rather than an ethnic community defined by heritage, according to the IPPR analysis.
The most common responses to the question of what constitutes a good British citizen were working hard (48%), raising children to be kind (62%), and respecting the law (64%). Just 3% said it required having white complexion, and only 8% said it concerned defending British-born people over other groups.
Good public services and a high standard of living were given top priority when asked what would make them proud of the nation in ten years: A functioning NHS was mentioned by 69%, affordability by 53%, and housing by 36%.
The IPPR urged Keir Starmer to expand on his remarks at the Labour party conference, in which he refuted ethno-nationalist viewpoints, and create a national rejuvenation agenda based on a distinct vision of what Britain ought to be and what unites it.
The prime minister claimed in his speech that he was fighting the far right in a "fight for the soul of our country."
Reform has come under fire for threatening to deport hundreds of thousands of British citizens by eliminating the primary path to settlement. Tory shadow minister Katie Lam came under fire for supporting mass deportations to make Britain "culturally coherent." The party's head, Kemi Badenoch, later refuted Lam's comments.
Senior politicians have cautioned about an increase in ethno-nationalist beliefs in recent months, many of which are spread online. According to weekly summaries commissioned by ministers, the Guardian recently reported that the top five stories circulating on social media in most weeks had far-right political themes.
Tommy Robinson organized a far-right march in Westminster in September that drew between 110,000 and 150,000 participants.
Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, stated last month that she is
"very proud to be a citizen of a country that is as diverse as we are."
She is a devout Muslim who was born in Britain to Pakistani parents.
In response to the US government's national security strategy, which denounced the immigration policies of European nations and demanded the return of "western identity," Mahmood described Britain as "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."
In an interview last summer, Badenoch, who was born in Britain to Nigerian parents, claimed to have seen a surge of online "ethno-nationalism," which included "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.
"A vast majority of the public still believes in a nation built on shared values and common interests, not birthplace or background,"
emphasized Nick Garland, an associate fellow at IPPR and former political speechwriter for Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
“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.”
What evidence does the new research present about inherited Britishness?
No recent exploration specifically documents a sharp rise in Britons viewing" Britishness" as rigorously inherited by birth, grounded on available data up to late 2025; inheritable studies on strain give literal environment but do n't address ultramodern attitudinal shifts toward ethno- nationalism.
Studies like the 2022 Nature paper on Anglo- Saxon migration show 25- 40 of ultramodern English DNA traces to international northern Europeans from the early medieval period, with advanced attention in eastern England, indicating substantial ancestral mixing rather than pure heritage.
Polling trends from Ipsos and others historically place 40- 50 support for descent- grounded (jus sanguinis) public identity over motherland( jus soli), told bypost-Brexit debates, but no vindicated 2025 substantiation confirms a" sharp rise" fueling unreasonableness enterprises.