Almost three-quarters of Britons are concerned about right-wing extremism following the anti-migrant riots, surveys have shown. And an increasing number of them are worried about a division in society.

The poll also found that while people generally felt that politicians had not responded particularly well to the wave of unrest, they were rather positive about Keir Starmer’s response – but not Nigel Farage’s.

In a part of the survey where people were asked to identify their concerns, public services and the economy were still the biggest worries, with 84 percent and 83 percent respectively saying they were very or fairly worried about these.

Of these, 73 percent of respondents said they were concerned about right-wing extremism. That is 11 percentage points more than when asked the same question in March of this year.

These findings come at a time of the worst unrest in Britain for a decade, which broke out in a number of towns after three young girls were fatally stabbed during a dance lesson in Southport on July 29.

He was charged with the murder of 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, whose name was not initially disclosed due to his age. Right-wing extremist agitators helped spread false information about the attack on the Internet. Some claimed that the perpetrator was a Muslim refugee.

The Ipsos poll also found an increase in concern about left-wing extremism (up 7 percentage points from March to 59 percent). Religious extremism was also a cause for concern, with 74 percent of respondents saying this was a cause for concern, up 9 percentage points from previously.

Overall, 85 percent of respondents said British society was very or fairly divided – the highest figure since 2019 – while only 11 percent disagreed.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents who were asked about the response to the riots said they thought the police did a good job; 19 percent disagreed.

While 21% of politicians supported their answer and 42% were against it, the verdict for Starmer was more positive: 39% said he had done a good job, 29% were of the opposite opinion.

In contrast, the poll found that only 21 percent of respondents thought Farage had responded well to the unrest, while 48 percent believed the opposite.

Farage came under fire during the riots after posting videos online in which he first questioned whether the police had withheld information about the perpetrator of the attack, before denying claims that the riots were largely the fault of the far right.

The verdict on social media companies was even more devastating: 60 percent of respondents said they had done a poor job in dealing with the unrest, and only 12 percent supported their actions.

Another notable feature of the survey was that people rated crime concerns at the national level as significantly more dire than when it came to their own region.

When asked whether crime and antisocial behaviour were a major problem across the UK, 86 per cent of respondents said this, up from 79 per cent in June. However, when asked about the situation in their area, the response dropped to just 40 per cent, one percentage point less.

When asked whether crime had increased in the past twelve months, 72 percent of respondents said that this was the case at the national level, but only 41 percent said this at the local level.