Education key to divide on immigration and politics, research suggests

Education is the “most important dividing line” in attitudes towards immigration and support for right-wing politics in the UK, according to research.

A new report from the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) revealed that people with qualifications below A-level have more than double the likelihood of supporting the Conservatives or Reform UK compared to those with higher levels of education.

It found that education divides attitudes on immigration and diversity more sharply in the UK than in the US, with “much wider gaps between graduates and non-graduates”.

According to the research, 55% of people in the UK with below A-level qualifications think immigrants living in the country without permission should not be allowed to stay, compared to 36% of degree holders.

The research found that “ethnicity and religion play a more important role in predicting support for Trump in the US than they do in predicting right-wing party support in the UK”.

It also found that gender gaps were “larger and more entrenched in the US”, despite men in both countries tending to “hold more conservative views on issues such as gender roles, abortion and the size of government”.

The research found that age divides attitudes in both countries “but more strongly in the US”, with young Americans far more likely than older generations to say other countries are better than the US – a divide that does not exist in the UK.

Some 40% of Americans aged 18–29 said other countries are better than the US, compared to 9% of over-65s.

In the UK, roughly half of both the youngest (51%) and oldest (46%) generations agreed that there are other countries better than the UK.

Data for the UK survey was collected from over 2,000 people using the NatCen Opinion Panel, a random-probability panel of people recruited from studies such as the British Social Attitudes survey.

Alex Scholes, research director at NatCen, said: “Right-wing politics in the UK and the US are often compared, but our findings show that they are built on different foundations.

“In Britain, education stands out as the most important dividing line, particularly on immigration and diversity.

“In the US, support for the right reflects a much denser mix of identities, including ethnicity, religion, gender, age and economic insecurity.

“These differences help explain why political polarisation looks and feels different between the UK and US, and why debates that dominate in one country do not always translate to the other.”

NatCen is a registered charity and the UK’s largest independent, not-for-profit social research organisation.