Is Britain's National Identity Disappearing? Poll Shows Majority of Britons Think Diversity Is Changing the UK

A UK poll reveals that more than half of British people think their national identity is disappearing because of diversity. The report, titled 'Britain Under Strain: The Broken Social Contract, Democratic Distrust and the Mainstreaming of Extremism' by research firm More in Common, said that 55% of people surveyed believe that heterogeneity has eroded their national identity.

'What it means to be British, and who that identity belongs to, has become a genuine fault line, not confined to any one political tribe, generation or region,' said lead researcher Dame Sara Khan, the former government adviser on extremism. 'Concern that diversity is eroding national identity is now a mainstream view, held by a majority of Britons.'

What Is the British Identity?

Close to a third of the respondents, or about 31%, believe that non-white people could 'never be as British' as white people. But who determines British identity? According to the law, British citizenship is acquired through birth, descent or naturalisation.

According to the 2021 census of the Office for National Statistics, 83.1% of the UK population identified as White British, down from 87% in 2011. Asian British is the second-largest group with 8.6%. The number was only 6.3% in 2011. Indians and Pakistanis make up the majority of this category, followed by Bangladeshis and Chinese.

Black Britons, meanwhile, accounted for 3.7 of the UK population in 2021, which was a slight increase from the 3% recorded in 2011.

'Deeply Disturbing' Findings

The majority of the 4,094 adults in the UK surveyed by More in Common believe that the UK identity is White, fuelling fears of erasure as diversity increases. A third of those surveyed (33%) expressed support for remigration.

Iman Atta, Director of Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks), a UK-based NGO monitoring and supporting victims of anti-Muslim hate, decried the 'deeply, deeply troubling' findings. 'The language of remigration is being used by anti-Muslim and far-right groups to suggest that British Muslim citizens should ultimately be part of the remigration process,' she said.

The report highlights anti-Muslim stances, noting that 42% of Britons do not believe Muslims can integrate into society. Among Reform UK supporters, that figure rises to 71%.

By contrast, 85% of British Muslims said they favour integration, with 88% of them saying they are comfortable with mixing with other faiths. A similar majority of 85% reported feeling free to practice their religion publicly.

But British Muslims feel the discomfort from White Britons, as 65% of them believe that White people are 'working against Muslims.' Some 56% believe that Jewish people are doing the same. Alarmingly, 27% of British Muslims either deny the Holocaust or believe the event has largely been exaggerated.

Broken Social Contract

As the survey shows conflicting results based on ethnicity, it also showcases wider distrust in institutions. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of respondents said that the social contract between the public and British institutions has collapsed.

'The challenge now facing us is more serious, and more deeply rooted... This is not a passing dip in confidence but a structural crisis as a result of a chronic erosion of trust in institutions,' said Khan, who was the UK's first counter-extremism commissioner. 'The window to grip this is vanishingly small. The incoming prime minister must address these issues before our social contract anxieties shred away our democratic values.'