Anger with the main parties has led more people to consider voting for the British National Party, a report for a social policy research group says. The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust said up to 25% of voters said they "might vote" for the far-right party.
The BNP said the report reflected voter "tension" about multi-cultural Britain.
But Home Office minister Andy Burnham said he believed support for the BNP was very localised - and in many cases represented a "protest vote".
The report echoes fears by Employment Minister Margaret Hodge that voters may be tempted by the BNP in May's local elections in England.
Underlying support
The authors asked focus groups about their voting views and looked at a series of opinion polls that asked people which party they might consider voting for.

It revealed "underlying support" for the BNP rather than voting intentions, said one of the authors, Professor Peter John of Manchester University.
"This is a very hypothetical question," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"It is not what party you will vote for, but who you might vote for."
Mrs Hodge said many white working-class voters in her east London constituency of Barking said they would consider voting for the party.
Prof John also said the far-right party tended to have more support in predominantly white, working class areas.
East London voters interviewed for the study said they felt "let down" by the main parties.
"They feel their voices have not been heard," he said.

However, Home Office minister Andy Burnham dismissed the likelihood of the BNP becoming a stronger electoral force.
"I think the report that has been published ... reflects a growing tendency towards protest voting, particularly at local elections," he said
"But I think things have got to be kept in proportion. There's no way the BNP will get anything close to 25%."
In the 2005 general election, the party raised its total number of votes by 0.5% to gain 0.7% - or 192,850 votes.
It gained support in the 2004 European Parliament elections, increasing its votes by 3.9% to gain 4.9% of the vote, but failed to win a seat.
The BNP has courted controversy over its policies, which include a total ban on immigration, and the forced deportation of illegal immigrants from the UK.
BNP spokesman Phil Edwards said the Rowntree report reflected unease among voters about Britain's shift towards a multicultural society.
He said Britain had moved from a "racially homogeneous society ... into one where the cultures are quite alien."
"That does add quite a lot of tensions and stresses," Mr Edwards said.
"What we are trying to do is preserve the traditional culture and identity of Britain," he added.

'More seats'
The BNP has said it is putting up more candidates than ever before - 356 - for May's local elections.

It currently has 15 councillors across England, and said at its campaign launch on Good Friday that it aimed to add "another 15 or 20" seats.
The Conservative social justice policy spokesman, Iain Duncan Smith, said people were considering voting for the BNP because they mistakenly believed that the party would improve housing and reduce crime.
"I've been horrified and worried by the degree to which people in difficult communities no longer consider Westminster politics to be anything to do with the solutions that they need to have."
'Simplistic solutions'
He said that was why "they start turning to others who have what maybe simplistic solutions".
Liberal Democrat President Simon Hughes said the main parties had only themselves to blame if people were turning away from them.
He said successive Tory and Labour governments had failed to provide enough affordable housing where families wished to live.

Operation Black Vote, a group which campaigns to make politics more multi-racial, agreed that voters in run-down areas felt the government had let them down.

"In these areas, deprivation and poverty exist," Simon Woolley, national co-ordinator for Operation Black Vote, told BBC Radio Five Live.
"Now that's a genuine debate to be had. ... It's nothing to do with black people."
The report, prepared by the Democratic Audit and funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, is due to be published next week.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4915096.stm

This has an element of "scare tactics" from the main parties to get their supporters out to vote, but I would question why anyone would be surprised at an "underlying support" for the BNP in Britain. British people including some black people seem to be of a right wing reactionary nature especially on issues of "the abuse of the immigration system" (as opposed to the abuse of immigrants and “illegal asylum seeker� which seems to have become government policy and a national past time). A lot of people are ( to paraphrase the Tories at the last general election) thinking what the BNP are thinking. This is a dangerous situation if we consider while remembering the Brixton bomb of 1999, that the bomber had links to the BNP.

I remember early last year having a talk to a spa of mine(asian) we were talking about immigration......even he mentioned he would vote bnp if they wasn't talking about him.

I think the bigger picture might be that people are looking at the labour party as worse than the conservatives, the conservatives couldn't getaway with half of what the labour are doing now, having only 36% of the vote(64% didn't want Labour) and total authority and they don't listen or care what you think you're just getting railroaded. Libdems don't get a look in and the BNP are saying what some people want to hear.

This is not a good thing and the Lab/Con are to blame for this current situation of people gravitating towards BNP and other fringe groups, people see things simply like how much tax they pay and what they get in return, compared to what they see others in this country have........this doesn't add up = hatred.

You know I love this story.....because its such bullshit.....lets break this down a moment 25% of Europeans are now threatening to vote for the BNP....as if they are somehow different to the Conservatives or the Labour party.... Thats like saying I'm moving my aligence from the KKK to the BNP...how is that a shift?

Under New Labour, wenow have Neo fascist state, where immigration has been on the top agenda for the past 7 years... You can't get housing without proof of citizenship, you can't get Medical help without proof of citizenship... You have Africans and other newcomers and their children, held like criminals in dentention camps all over Britian.. Every immigrant is forced to carry an ID card, and forced to work for slave wages..

Under this Goverment a man, an innocent man was shot 11 times in the head, we have innocent people held in prison WITHOUT charge or due process, this goverment sanctioned and colludes with the kidnapping of people from their countries to be held illegally in Cuba..Worse they even lie to their own people and invade other countries on the pretext of freedom..

This Goverment is advocating the compulsory introduction of ID cards and by defacto..the centralised data base of YOUR DNA, medical details, personal details, financial details, employment details, etc etc...for what other purpose we don't know yet!!!

Yet I'm now being asked to FEAR the BNP...sorry but what is the BNP going to do that the Conservatives or the Labour party haven't done or won't do in the future..I'm curious?

This is such a red herring its untrue...

@Kunjufu---they'll deport ya ass. even if you were born in uk they'd still "repatriate" ya black self.

Not heard labour annouce that as a policy statement. But i'm waiting...

Launching its manifesto last week, chairman Nick Griffin promised the segregation of 'foreign pupils' and 'native English speakers' in schools and the use of asylum seekers to sweep the streets.

Exactly that....all of the above and them some.

It's becoming apparent all parties are beginning to say and do the same thing, vote one way go down the same road. Facism.

Point made already..Labour are doing exactly what BNP are saying, the only difference is with a smile. It's because of this Labour are able to get away with more.

Remember Labour is now New Labour, everything it once and stood for is no longer brought up, just look at John Prescott and what he stood for 20yrs ago to know that now he has got his and bugger the rest. The dupe is to go BNP or be frightened of them I'm starting to smell something and it's not roses that's for sure!!!

My view is that this is all short sighted. The reality is that the Africans and Indians are supporting the NHS, eastern Europeans are building London, Australians and New Zealanders are educating our children and Nigerians are driving us around in their minicabs.

The politicians aren't pointing that out though....and why not we wonder.

The white underclass need to stop moaning and make the most of the opportunities they have in their own land.


AMR