Three-quarters of Eurosceptics express concern over immigration, research shows, highlighting how the issue will be central to EU referendum.
The research is contained in a new book on Ukip, co-authored by Professor Matthew Goodwin, of the University’s School of Politics and International Relations. Entitled UKIP: Inside the Campaign to Redraw the Map of British Politics, the book presents a revealing insight into Ukip’s 2015 General election campaign.
Based on unprecedented access to Ukip, the book tells the story of what really happened as the party attempted to break through at Westminster but then descended into civil war. The research was based on analysis of more than 30,000 voters and hundreds of interviews with Ukip insiders.
Among the revelations was the fact that Ukip leader Nigel Farage and his lieutenants did not consider their new recruit Douglas Carswell to be ‘true Ukip’. They thought him ‘preachy’, and claimed that the MP ‘sounds like Cameron’.
The book also reveals how immigration is central to Euroscepticism in modern Britain. The researchers found that Eurosceptic voters who feel that immigrants are negatively impacting on Britain’s economy, welfare state, and culture are sixteen times more likely to back Brexit than voters who do not share these concerns over the EU and immigration.
It also shows how Labour’s senior strategists ignored Ukip for too long and how Ukip benefitted from the collapse of the BNP.
UKIP: Inside the Campaign to Redraw the Map of British Politics (Oxford University Press, 26 November 2015) was co-authored by Matthew Goodwin, Professor of Politics and International Relations and Caitlin Milazzo, Assistant Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham.
Professor Goodwin’s previous book, Revolt on the Right, was awarded Political Book of the Year in 2015.