MORE than one in four Europeans hold hostile views towards minority groups, a major study in eight countries, including Britain, suggests. 

At least a quarter of Europeans have negative feelings towards Muslims and almost a third have hostile views regarding immigrants, according to a new poll of 12,000 people from Sweden, France, Germany, Britain, Hungary, Poland and Italy. 

The report, which analyses the state of the far right in Europe, found that negative feelings towards Roma people was even higher, at more than a third.  

Three anti-extremism groups Hope Not Hate, the Amadeu Antonio Foundation and Expo, based in Britain, Sweden and Germany respectively, carried out the research. 

They also found a “dramatic rise” in far-right conspiracy theories during the Covid-19 pandemic, providing a “worrying new route to anti-semitic politics.” 

Hope Not Hate chief Nick Lowles said: “At a European level, it’s clear that conspiracy theories, many with anti-semitic roots, are gaining in popularity and that a rising racial nationalism is accompanying the continued increase in far-right terror.

“Hate ideologies are internationalised like never before, and so resistance must be too.”