Most Popular News From Guardian - Surge in migrant voters could swing vote in key UK constituencies

Popular from The Guardian - A record number of people who were born outside the UK will be able to vote in this year’s general election and are likely to hold the balance of power in several key constituencies, according to the first comprehensive analysis of the migrant vote.
Almost 4 million voters – about one in 10 of the entire electorate in England and Wales - are predicted to have been born overseas come May and, for the first time, it is predicted that more than 50% of voters of the eligible electorate will have been born abroad in two seats.
The report’s authors say the growing significance of the “migrant vote” is being largely ignored by the main parties and widespread anti-immigrant rhetoric risks alienating this key constituency for generations.
“Migrant voters are almost as numerous as current Ukip supporters but they are widely overlooked and risk being increasingly disaffected by mainstream politics and the fierce rhetoric around immigration caused partly by the rise of Ukip,” said Robert Ford from Manchester University, the report’s co-author. “Britain is more than ever an outward-facing, globalised country with a huge, hardworking, mobile electorate born overseas. However, the political debate fails to reflect that contemporary reality in any meaningful way.”
The report, by Ford and Ruth Grove-White from the Migrants’ Rights Network, is published on Thursday and based on an analysis of data from the census in 2001 and 2011 and the national statistics agency. It found: