A new report written by a former government adviser on extremism has raised huge alarm about the “vanishingly small” window for a new PM to be able to take action to curb the growing division and hate in the UK.
Sara Khan’s analysis reveals a stark image of the current — and growing — lack of harmony in the UK with the report finding that over half of Brits believe that the country is losing its national identity as a result of diversity. Additionally, it apparently found that 40% of people thought that Muslims are not even capable of integration.
According to the Guardian, Khan warned:
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.
With the report showing that 85% of Muslims want to integrate, it lays bare the gulf between reality and the fearmongering pushed by Farage and the far-right. It also points to a wider problem: a growing distrust in public institutions and government that, in turn, actively fuels suspicion between communities.
That said, the report itself is surprisingly difficult to access, so we’re largely relying on The Guardian’s account of its findings rather than the full facts.
Extremism being influenced by hostile states and bad actors
Firstly, it’s worth noting that the article was co-authored by Dr Matthew Goodwin, who previously worked in the extremism policy unit at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. It would be wrong to ignore the influence of the Tony Blair Institute in this damning and terrifying report, especially given Blair’s criminal involvement in the ‘War on Terror’ which fed anti-Muslim rhetoric across the West.
The fact that it has a department which apparently seeks to monitor extremism feels incredibly tasteless and nefarious when he had a hand in fostering the rising extremism on our shores and mass murder overseas. Coupled with the fact that the report itself is not publicly available, we have been unable to verify the legitimacy of the findings.
Nevertheless, the report made the following findings:
- 55% of people say that Britain’s national identity is vanishing as a result of diversity.
- 31% said they were partial to the pretty bigoted opinion that people of colour would “never be as British” as white people.
- 33% favour remigration, something repeatedly churned out by Farage and the far-right.
- 42% believe that Muslims are not capable of integration, which is not backed up by polling of Muslim people in the UK. This grew to 71% amongst Reform UK voters.
- 80% of Brits believe that it is never okay to use political violence. It then cites 29% of 18-34-year-olds as saying it is acceptable. Interestingly, this is a similar percentage to Reform UK’s vote share in the UK and is hardly surprising given the brutal white riots incited by Nigel Farage.
Division by design
It doesn’t take much to work out where this bogus idea that diversity is behind ordinary people’s struggles comes from. Starmer’s much-criticised ‘island of strangers’ speech helped exacerbate public debate, while billionaire-backed outfits like Reform UK and Restore Britain have relentlessly pushed anti-immigration rhetoric that feeds into the debunked ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory.
The establishment and mainstream politics have both used the politically convenient ploy of blaming the ‘other’ to keep their paymasters happy and further their own bad interests. All the while, British people are distracted from the true enemies, allowing the status quo to carry on unchallenged.
The Guardian writes that Khan warned:
The challenge now facing us is more serious, and more deeply rooted, than when I was counter-extremism commissioner. This is not a passing dip in confidence but a structural crisis as a result of a chronic erosion of trust in institutions.
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.
Where has this fear come from, we wonder
The thread running through it all is clear: fear-driven messaging from Reform UK, Restore Britain and far-right figures such as Tommy Robinson appears to have distorted perceptions, with divisive rhetoric encouraging many people to see people of colour as the source of their problems rather than questioning the wider forces shaping their lives.
Fear for Muslims is also growing significantly, according to the Guardian’s reporting.
For instance, whilst 85% of Muslims say they would indeed want to integrate into British society, 64% of British Muslims feel that white people were “working against Muslims” and another 56% who believe Jewish people were doing the same thing. Another concerning statistic is that 27% apparently believe the Holocaust had been “invented or exaggerated”.
However, this report coincides with an ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and ethnic cleansing achieved through settler-colonial terrorism in the West Bank. Therefore, it is important to note that there is a difference between Zionism and Judaism, and the statistic may have differed if Zionism was offered as opposed to ‘Jewish people’.
For many, the repeated weaponisation of antisemitism to defend Israel’s actions in Gaza has crossed a dangerous line. After all, using the memory of Jewish suffering by invoking the Holocaust as a shield for the deaths of Palestinian civilians undermines the promise of “Never Again” and risks disrespecting the very tragic history that phrase was meant to honour.
Extremism — Distraction tactics with real-life consequences
Similarly, the UK has seen a number of white riots, violence and attempted murders, such as in Southport, Southampton, Dublin and Edinburgh, which arguably provides a plausible explanation for why British Muslims might feel threatened by white people. On the other hand, much of the anti-immigrant rhetoric isn’t even backed by the evidence.
However, MSM has churned this report out and its damning findings about the rise of extremism whilst leaving much up for the reader to interpret. The far-right, of course, have lapped this up as if it’s proof that they were right all along and that Muslims are the problem with a GB News presenter Matthew Goodwin posting on X:
More than half of all British people — 55%— now think diversity is eroding Britain’s identity.
It’s a fully mainstream view. People have had enough.
Source: Britain Under Strain report, reported in The Times today
— Matt Goodwin (@GoodwinMJ) July 8, 2026
When statistics stoke fear rather than inform, MSM is negligent
The fact that The Guardian and others are reporting these statistics with so little transparency is concerning. Figures like these can easily fuel fear and suspicion among both Muslim and white British communities, making it all the more important that their source and methodology are clear.
After hours of searching, I could find no publicly available copy of the report behind these findings, leaving unanswered questions about how the research was conducted and where particular emphasis may have been placed.
This becomes an even greater level of negligence for the MSM as it chooses to provide little context to inform readers and will instead incite and whip up further fear in British society thus increasing divisions and hate.
Iman Atta, director of NGO Tell Mama responsible for monitoring anti-Muslim hate, told the Guardian:
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.
This prejudicial and bigoted perspective goes against the core values of our country of the rule of law and fair play. There are real fractures buffeting a number of communities and their relations towards each other today and we have a turbulent time ahead unless the government gets really serious about the depth of the problems.
The MSM have chosen to churn these statistics out at a particularly divisive time without context and clarity, which is negligent.
But given its coverage of the Zionist genocide, it is hardly surprising.
Featured image via the Canary
