An Ipsos poll found three in five say divisions between immigrants and the UK-born are the greatest source of tension, eclipsing class, politics and religion a year after riots shook the nation.
A year after the attack in Southport and the riots that followed, the wound in Britain’s social fabric shows little sign of healing.
New polling from Ipsos confirms what many have felt instinctively: the sense that the country is riven remains stubbornly high. Four-fifths of the public – a stark 81 per cent – believe Britain is a divided society. That figure has barely shifted in the seven years since Ipsos began tracking it.
It would be tempting to chalk this up to a temporary mood – the hangover from a few turbulent political seasons, a by-product of social media’s endless shouting matches. But the data reveal something more ingrained, and more troubling. Far from dissipating, the perception of division has found a new, sharper focus. Immigration, rather than class, religion or politics, is now seen by most Britons as the single greatest point of tension.
Three in five respondents – 61 per cent – say the main source of division in Britain today is between immigrants and people born in the country. That is a dramatic nine-point jump from a year ago, before Southport’s name was etched into the national consciousness. In August 2024, the figure was 52 per cent; now, the rise leaves other fault lines trailing behind. Tensions between different ethnicities are cited by 40 per cent, the gap between rich and poor by 39 per cent, and political or religious differences by just 37 per cent apiece.
The shift matters. Immigration has long been part of Britain’s political conversation, but for it to eclipse every other social division by such a margin suggests a deeper, structural anxiety. It also suggests that the events of last summer have crystallised pre-existing concerns rather than creating them from scratch.
An Uneven Sense of Division
The feeling that Britain is fractured is not evenly distributed. Ipsos found that 91 per cent of those aged 55-75 perceive the country as divided, compared with just 69 per cent of 16-34-year-olds. This generational split is revealing. Older Britons have lived through successive waves of immigration, economic upheaval, and political change; for many, the cumulative effect may be a sharper sense of rupture from the country they once knew. Younger Britons, often more cosmopolitan in outlook, may be more accustomed to diversity in their daily lives – or perhaps simply less attuned to the idea that this diversity could be a source of national tension.
Politically, the divide is equally marked. Reform UK supporters – 90 per cent of whom believe Britain is divided – top the list. Conservative voters are not far behind at 82 per cent, while Labour voters come in at 78 per cent. That gap mirrors the intensity of the immigration debate itself: Reform’s pitch is built around radical reductions in immigration, while Labour’s language is more tempered, even as it grapples with the same border-control dilemmas.
The Immigration Moment
Britain’s immigration debate has had many flashpoints – the 2015 migration crisis, the Brexit referendum, the Windrush scandal, the small boat crossings – but the events in Southport last year appear to have been a catalyst for a fresh surge in public concern. That August, a violent attack attributed to a man reported to have arrived in Britain as an asylum seeker ignited riots in several towns. In the weeks that followed, Ipsos polling recorded a sharp increase in the proportion citing immigration as the main social fault line.
The latest data confirm that this spike was no fleeting reaction. If anything, it has settled into the political bedrock. Seventy-two per cent of respondents now say they are concerned about small boat crossings and illegal immigration – a figure virtually unchanged from the months immediately after Southport. Three-quarters – 76 per cent – say the rise of religious extremism is a concern, also steady from last August.
In other words, Britain’s immigration anxiety is not simply about numbers. It is bound up with questions of security, integration, and cultural cohesion – questions that policymakers have repeatedly failed to answer in a way that satisfies the majority.
A Gap Between Policy and Perception
One of the striking things about the Ipsos findings is that they measure perception rather than fact. Whether Britain is more or less “divided” than in the past is debatable; whether immigration is truly the most destabilising factor in national life is a matter of judgement. But perception is politically potent, and in this case the perception has proved remarkably resilient.
Government after government has promised to “take back control” of Britain’s borders. Net migration figures have been trimmed in some years and ballooned in others. Legislation has been introduced to deter illegal entry and speed up deportations, yet the small boat crossings continue. Ministers speak of “community cohesion” even as town halls quietly struggle to find housing, school places, and translation services for newcomers. The public sees the mismatch between rhetoric and reality, and the result is a persistent belief that immigration is both poorly managed and socially destabilising.
That belief is not confined to any single political tribe. The Ipsos data suggest that while Reform and Conservative supporters are most animated by the issue, concern is also widespread among Labour voters. This is not simply a “right-wing” obsession; it is a mainstream anxiety that transcends party lines.
Why Immigration Trumps Other Divisions
The rise of immigration to the top of Britain’s perceived fault lines is not simply about economics, though housing shortages and competition for public services play their part. It is also about identity – the sense of what it means to be British, and whether that identity is being reshaped without consent.
Unlike divisions between rich and poor, which can be eased by redistributive policy, or between political factions, which wax and wane with electoral cycles, immigration changes the demographic and cultural composition of the nation in ways that are not easily reversible. This lends the debate a certain urgency for those who see rapid demographic change as destabilising.
There is also the fact that immigration interacts with other tensions. Concerns about religious extremism, cited by three-quarters of respondents, are often tied in the public mind to immigration from particular regions. Disputes over housing, education, and healthcare can become flashpoints when newcomers are perceived – fairly or not – to be competing for scarce resources. In this way, immigration acts as a multiplier for other sources of division.
Generational Drift or Hardening Lines?
The lower levels of perceived division among younger Britons might suggest that, over time, the immigration debate will lose some of its sting. Younger people have grown up in a Britain where diversity is normal; their friends, colleagues, and partners are more likely to come from immigrant backgrounds. But the same Ipsos poll shows that concern about illegal immigration and extremism remains high even among this cohort, hinting that the generational gap is more about degree than direction.
If the economic climate worsens, or if further high-profile crimes are linked to recent arrivals, the current generational divide could narrow rapidly. Conversely, if small boat crossings were substantially reduced and integration improved, perceptions could soften. But there is little sign of either scenario unfolding soon.
A Persistent Political Challenge
For politicians, the Ipsos findings are a warning and an opportunity. They are a warning because they show how entrenched immigration is as a perceived national fault line – one that cannot be wished away with a few speeches about “British values” or economic necessity. They are an opportunity because they offer a clear signal of where public concern lies, and therefore where policy focus is demanded.
Yet the challenge is immense. Any government serious about addressing these concerns must navigate a minefield of legal obligations, international relations, and domestic politics. The temptation will be to tinker at the edges – announce new targets, promise tougher enforcement – without confronting the deeper structural issues.
If they fail, the perception of division will continue to harden. Ipsos’s seven years of data suggest that once established, such perceptions are remarkably difficult to shift. Britain could be living with the political consequences for a generation.
The Stakes
In the end, the Ipsos poll is not just a snapshot of opinion. It is a barometer of national mood – one that has been reading “stormy” for a long time. The fact that immigration now eclipses every other perceived source of division tells us that this is not a fringe anxiety but a mainstream concern, deeply embedded in the public consciousness.
A year on from Southport, Britain has not reconciled itself to its divisions. If anything, they have become sharper and more defined. And unless political leaders can bridge the gap between public expectation and policy delivery, immigration will remain the country’s most potent, and most dangerous, fault line.
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READ ALSO: EDGE ANALYTICS: STUDY REVEALS 1 IN 12 PEOPLE IN LONDON ARE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
“Cities across Western Europe, including Malmö, Molenbeek, Rotterdam, Paris, and Marseille, have experienced ethnic conflict and rising tensions linked to immigration.
These examples serve as a cautionary tale for London, where the risk of similar conflicts looms large.”
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