Britons Share Values, Feel Divided: Public First Study Finds
A large-scale study by the policy and polling research firm Public First has found that Britons across all political parties, age groups, social classes, and regions share the values of hard work, fair play, and community. The study, published on 2026-08-11 GMT, polled 6,000 adults and spoke to 300 people in focus groups. The Guardian
More than 65% of respondents felt that in a post-Brexit era Britain is more divided than ever. Fewer than one in three felt hopeful about the UK's future, and seven in 10 felt things have become worse in the last five years. Three-quarters of the public believed British people shared a common set of values, ranging from 70% of Reform UK voters to 83% of Labour-leaning voters. The Guardian
In the Public First study, 70% of respondents described hard work as a British value. Eighty percent agreed Britain was at its best when neighbours looked out for one another. Sixty-two percent of those who had volunteered in the last month said they were optimistic about their local area's future, compared with 25% of those who had never volunteered. The Guardian
Half of respondents said immigration had had a negative impact on the UK, while only one-fifth said a diversity of people and cultures made them proud to live in the UK. Only 27% of those polled thought the royal family played the biggest role in upholding British values today. Olivia Walsham is the director of social policy at Public First. The Guardian
Sunder Katwala, the director of British Future, commented that the report showed British people had become not only more divided but more discomfited by how divided they feel. The Guardian
A 2026 article in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies argues that 'fairness' has formed a largely unexamined but deeply embedded and sustained moral justification of the UK's hostile immigration environment. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
The four fundamental British values taught in UK education are democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and respect and tolerance. Buckinghamshire New University
The broader context here is the gap between the public's perception of shared values and their simultaneous sense of deep national division. The Public First data paint a picture of a population that recognizes a common moral framework, defined by hard work, fair play, and community, yet feels socially fractured. The finding that 62% of recent volunteers feel optimistic about their local area's future, compared to a quarter of those who have never volunteered, suggests that civic engagement functions as a buffer against national pessimism. The hyper-local appears to be where optimism survives, even as national sentiment sours.
The juxtaposition of widespread belief in a common values base alongside the conviction that the country is more divided than ever raises questions about how values are operationalized politically. When 70% of respondents describe hard work as a British value, and half cite immigration as a negative impact, the definition of who qualifies within the community becomes contested. The academic argument from the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, that 'fairness' underpins the hostile immigration environment, provides a lens for interpreting the polling data. If fairness is an embedded moral justification for restrictive immigration policy, then the public's simultaneous embrace of fair play and skepticism of immigration may not be contradictory, but rather a coherent ethical framework applied selectively.
Looking at what this means for institutions, the low public confidence in the royal family as the primary upholder of British values suggests a shift away from traditional institutional anchors of national identity. Only 27% of those polled assigned this role to the monarchy. The four British values codified in UK education, namely democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and respect and tolerance, represent a state-sanctioned framework that diverges from the public's own emphasis on hard work, fair play, and community. The Public First study suggests that the public's conception of British values is more informal and social than the formal civic definitions taught in schools.
