Since last year’s EU referendum, many political analysts have placed Britons neatly into one of two tribes: Leavers or Remainers. But a new piece of research paints a more nuanced picture of the lines along which British society is divided.

The detailed survey of 4,000 voters by Ipsos Mori, conducted over the course of the past year and published on Tuesday, identifies the disparate groups that make up the Leave and Remain camps, as well as those who fall somewhere in between.

The Financial Times has looked at the groups and assessed how their characteristics and experiences influenced their votes for or against Brexit.

Education levels, attitudes towards immigration and the rural-urban divide emerge the strongest factors when all groups are considered, while others, such as age, social class and party allegiance had a more nuanced effect on voter behaviour.

‘British values’ Leavers

(10 per cent of the population)

Disproportionately older people, including many retirees, who own their own homes outright and lean heavily towards backing either the UK Independence party — they are four times more likely than the average Briton to vote Ukip — or the Conservatives. These voters tend to live away from large cities and are more likely than any other group to think immigration has had a negative impact on Britain — even though they are unlikely to have experienced its effects first-hand.

Their vote in the referendum was primarily ideological, and therefore especially resistant to pro-Remain arguments. They tend to think the UK was a better place in previous generations, and that leaving the EU will help slow the ethnic and cultural change in the country of recent decades.

Working-class Leavers

(15 per cent of the population)

Another group of hardline Leave supporters, though of very different backgrounds to the “British values” voters. They are the youngest Leave voters — almost half are under the age of 45 — and more likely than any other group to be living in social housing. Voters in this group tend to come from the north of England but are far less likely than any other Leavers to live in rural areas.

They could also be referred to as “red Leavers”, because they are mostly in the working-class towns and cities of Labour’s northern heartlands. Many of these areas are among the most economically deprived in the UK, meaning anti-establishment sentiment may have played a bigger role with “working-class Leavers” than among their “British values” counterparts.

Moderate Leavers

(18 per cent of the population)

A mixed group with varying characteristics. They are more rural than the “working-class” group but have lower-skilled jobs than the “British values” bracket. They have the least negative views on immigration among Leavers and are the least likely to vote Ukip — but they are still more negative towards immigration and more likely to back Ukip than the national average.

However, they are clearly distinct from Remainers in several key characteristics, including education. “Moderate” Leavers are almost 40 per cent more likely to have left school at 16 than the national average.

Disengaged Remainers

(16 per cent of the population)

This group shares many characteristics with “working-class” Leavers but is less likely to vote Labour. They have the least education compared with other Remainers, and are most likely to be in low-skilled work and social housing among Remain voters. They are also by far the most likely across all groups simply not to vote.

Crucially, age and geography — both known to be key factors in the referendum — separate this group from the “red Leavers”. Almost half of “disengaged” Remainers are under the age of 35.

While their northern counterparts have faced harsher economic conditions and only recently been exposed to immigration, “disengaged” Remainers are disproportionately based in London, where longstanding multiculturalism means anti-immigration sentiment is low. As a result, they lacked the same motivation to vote Leave.

Young, urban Remainers

(11 per cent of the population)

This group shares some characteristics with “disengaged” Remainers, but is more upwardly mobile and politically engaged. These are the youngest Remainers, the most likely across all groups to be renting from a private landlord, and the group with the highest share of students. These voters are concentrated in London and Scottish cities and are the most likely group to vote Labour and the least likely group to vote Conservative.

This largely well-educated group has grown up in multicultural Britain, with more than half living most of their lives under a Labour government. As a result, they are militantly Labour and fiercely pro-immigration — and are as firmly Remain as the “British values” group is Leave.

Older, liberal Remainers

(15 per cent of the population)

This group shares some demographics with the “British values” Leavers — more than half the members of each group are over 55, and both groups have a high share of homeowners. But the Remainers are also starkly different from their Leave-voting counterparts.

“Older, liberal” Remainers — the embodiment of the “metropolitan liberal elite” — are the most likely of all groups to have been to university, and have the lion’s share of highly paid and skilled jobs. They tend to live in cities in the south-east and the East Midlands, and although they are most likely to vote Labour, they are also disproportionately likely to back the Liberal Democrats.

A comfortable lifestyle with the education to shape positive attitudes to immigration and insulate them from its impacts has meant that for most of these voters, a Leave vote never made much sense.

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