It is Labour and Lib Dem voters who are most likely to see Starmer as anti-immigration, not the Reform UK voters the prime minister was trying to reach out to
Immigration has reared its head as an issue again, with Keir Starmer’s recent speech warning that the UK risks becoming an “island of strangers” a clear attempt to appeal to voters for whom migrant numbers are a concern.
But are they buying it? A new YouGov survey examines where Britons think parties and politicians stand on immigration, as well as the public themselves.
Following his recent speech, a quarter of Britons (28%) consider Starmer to be an anti-immigration politician. That said, more still see him as being pro-immigration (35%), with a further 19% seeing him as neither.
The problem for Starmer is that people who see him as anti-immigration are not the people he has been trying to convince of that fact.
A mere 6% of Reform UK voters – who Labour strategists are increasingly hoping to target – believe Starmer to be an anti-immigration politician, compared to fully 80% who see him as pro-migration.
Likewise, only 16% of Tories also see Starmer as being anti-immigration, but this figure rises to 37% among Labour voters and 45% among Lib Dems; in both cases, this is the most common attitude. This represents a potential risk for Starmer, with Labour losing more voters to its left than its right, that adopting an immigration image repellant to more natural Labour targets could do more harm than abandoning Reform defectors.
Overall, four in ten Britons (41%) say that they themselves are anti-immigration. However, just 13% of this group believe that Starmer is a fellow traveller in that regard. Most anti-immigration Britons (58%) see the prime minister as being pro-immigration.
Where do Britons say they themselves stand on immigration?
The four in ten Britons who describe themselves as anti-immigration form a plurality of the population, outnumbering the 28% who say they are pro-immigration and the 24% who consider themselves neither pro- nor anti-immigration.
Unsurprisingly, Reform UK voters are the most likely to describe themselves as anti-immigration, at 84%, followed by 69% of Conservative voters.
Labour and Lib Dem voters are more divided. The most common identity among both voting groups is ‘pro-immigration’, at 43-44%. Labour voters are more likely than Lib Dems to describe themselves as being anti-immigration (24% vs 17%), while Lib Dems are more likely to say they are neither (37% vs 28%).
The results show that men, older Britons, and those living in working class households are more anti-immigration than their female, younger, and middle class counterparts.
Where do Britons think parties and politicians stand on immigration?
Of the main party leaders, Keir Starmer is the most likely to be seen as pro-migration. His only rival in this regard is Ed Davey, whom 25% see as being pro-immigration versus only 4% who see him as anti-immigration. This is largely because Davey is far less well-known to the wider public, with fully 56% answering “don’t know” for the Lib Dem leader, versus 19% for Starmer.
If we look at attitudes towards the Liberal Democrat party itself, with which more Britons have some familiarity, we can see that 35% of Britons see the Lib Dems as being pro-immigration; a similar figure to Labour itself (39%). Again, far fewer see the Lib Dems as being anti-immigration (6%) than Labour (25%).
By contrast, Nigel Farage is widely seen as being anti-immigration, at 82%. Kemi Badenoch is also largely seen as being anti-immigration, with 42% of Britons saying so compared to only 8% who think the opposite. Again, these figures reflect a broader lack of familiarity with Badenoch relative to Farage, with 39% unsure of the Tory leader’s views compared to 13% for the Reform UK boss.
Our survey also included Boris Johnson, the prime minister under whom net migration reached record levels in 2022. Nevertheless, Johnson is still seen as an anti-immigration politician by a plurality of Britons (44%). However, Reform UK voters tend to see him as being pro-immigration, at 38% - a figure which rises to 53% for his successor-but-one Rishi Sunak.
With the Conservatives having haemorrhaged voters to Reform UK over their record on immigration, it will be disheartening for Kemi Badenoch to see that 51% of Reform voters consider the Tory party to be pro-immigration – even if they are slightly more likely to see her as having an anti-immigration stance (26%) than her party (18%).
But if Labour or the Conservatives think they are going to be able to chip voters away from Reform UK with anti-immigration pledges, they have their work cut out for them. Previous YouGov research has shown that the party and its leader are extremely popular with their voters, and they are likewise far more convinced that both are anti-immigration (85% in each case).
Do you think Keir Starmer is pro- or anti-immigration? What do you think about Starmer's recent "Island of Strangers" speech, the levels of immigration to the UK, and everything else? Have your say, join the YouGov panel, and get paid to share your thoughts. Sign up here.
Photo: Getty
