This paper investigates the social and attitudinal profile of supporters of extreme right parties (ERPs) in the British case, and presents preliminary findings from our forthcoming manuscript on the subject. It builds on the wider pan-European literature by testing several theories commonly applied to explaining the rise of ERPs. It also employs data from a variety of sources to build a comprehensive picture of who votes for the British National Party (BNP), and why. These include specially conducted surveys by IPSOS-MORI and YouGov, which contain the largest samples of BNP voters so far gathered. In addition, we draw on the British Election Studies (BES) of 2005 and 2010, which contain smaller samples of BNP voters but detailed demographic and attitudinal data, and the British Social Attitudes (BSA) surveys, which are combined across several years to build a larger sample of BNP supporters. We also employ aggregate data on BNP support levels in local, national and European Parliament elections which are combined with contextual data on local economic and social conditions.
