BNP members more likely to live in Labour constituencies

Published on Wednesday 6 April 2011 19:04

MEMBERSHIP of the British National Party (BNP) is higher where whites and non-whites live separately in segregated areas, research has found.

Oxford University academics used the BNP database posted on Wikileaks that contained 12,000 members' details and then matched them with census data on more than 200,000 neighbourhoods in Britain to make the findings.

Whites are more likely to belong to the BNP in a highly-segregated city like Bradford where just under a quarter (22 per cent) of the population is non-white, compared to a well-integrated area like Brent in London where over half (55 per cent) of the population is non-white.

White people were also more likely to belong to the BNP in Labour constituencies, the research claimed.

Whites might perceive a political threat from concentrated non-white communities, with Labour being perceived as favouring minorities. Dr Michael Biggs,from Oxford University, who carried out the research with a graduate student, Steve Knauss said: "Segregation means that white British people are less likely to have contact with non-whites beyond the immediate neighbourhood.

"It also creates a greater sense of cultural or even political threat."