New polling shows the British public remains deeply concerned about immigration - with attitudes becoming more negative over the past decade.
In his latest Substack essay, writer and pollster Matt Goodwin highlighted new YouGov data showing that around seven in 10 British people believe that there has been too much immigration to the UK. Almost half of the country - 47% - now says immigration has been “much too high”.
“There’s been no move leftwards. No ‘liberalisation’”, Goodwin noted. “The British people remain just as convinced that there’s too much migration as they were a decade ago.”
In 2016, 33% of Brits said immigration had been “mostly bad” for the country. Today, that figure stands at 43% - a rise of 10 percentage points.
By contrast, Goodwin pointed out that only 21% now believe that immigration has been good for Britain.
“The fringe minority, in other words, is not people who want migration lowered; the fringe minority is the one in five people in Britain who think the level is ‘about right’,” he wrote.
Concern is not confined to older or traditionally conservative voters, either. According to the polling, 18-to-24-year-olds are more likely to say that immigration has been too high than to say it has been too low or about right.
The biggest shift has come among people who voted Remain in the 2016 EU referendum. A majority - 53% - now says immigration has been too high, while the proportion saying it has been “much too high” has risen by 10 points.
Goodwin said the figures showed that “even among the very voters who were supposed to lead Britain’s great post-Brexit liberal awakening, concern about immigration is now hardening”.
This is exactly why Reform UK has become Britain’s largest political party, is consistently leading national opinion polls, and is continuing to grow. Reform is the only party that gives a voice to British voters concerned about immigration, and promises to do something about this crisis. Only a Reform government can deliver the scale of change Britain needs - stopping the illegal Channel crossings for good, ending the era of cheap foreign labour, and detaining and deporting every illegal immigrant in Britain.
The establishment may still insist that opposition to uncontrolled immigration is a fringe, “extremist” view, but it is becoming increasingly clear that the opposite is true. Reform UK is speaking for the majority.
Subscribe to Matt Goodwin’s Substack here.
In his latest Substack essay, writer and pollster Matt Goodwin highlighted new YouGov data showing that around seven in 10 British people believe that there has been too much immigration to the UK. Almost half of the country - 47% - now says immigration has been “much too high”.
“There’s been no move leftwards. No ‘liberalisation’”, Goodwin noted. “The British people remain just as convinced that there’s too much migration as they were a decade ago.”
In 2016, 33% of Brits said immigration had been “mostly bad” for the country. Today, that figure stands at 43% - a rise of 10 percentage points.
By contrast, Goodwin pointed out that only 21% now believe that immigration has been good for Britain.
“The fringe minority, in other words, is not people who want migration lowered; the fringe minority is the one in five people in Britain who think the level is ‘about right’,” he wrote.
Concern is not confined to older or traditionally conservative voters, either. According to the polling, 18-to-24-year-olds are more likely to say that immigration has been too high than to say it has been too low or about right.
The biggest shift has come among people who voted Remain in the 2016 EU referendum. A majority - 53% - now says immigration has been too high, while the proportion saying it has been “much too high” has risen by 10 points.
Goodwin said the figures showed that “even among the very voters who were supposed to lead Britain’s great post-Brexit liberal awakening, concern about immigration is now hardening”.
This is exactly why Reform UK has become Britain’s largest political party, is consistently leading national opinion polls, and is continuing to grow. Reform is the only party that gives a voice to British voters concerned about immigration, and promises to do something about this crisis. Only a Reform government can deliver the scale of change Britain needs - stopping the illegal Channel crossings for good, ending the era of cheap foreign labour, and detaining and deporting every illegal immigrant in Britain.
The establishment may still insist that opposition to uncontrolled immigration is a fringe, “extremist” view, but it is becoming increasingly clear that the opposite is true. Reform UK is speaking for the majority.
Subscribe to Matt Goodwin’s Substack here.
