In every group polled – except mixed race – more than half of respondents believed that Britain was a country where someone of their race would be treated fairly, with fewer than 20 per cent in each ethnic group disagreeing with this proposition.

It found that ethnic minority individuals now believe by a majority of 54 per cent to 26 per cent that class was more important than race in determining whether a person would succeed in modern day Britain.

However, although race was not seen by minorities as a direct barrier to success, it did not mean that racism or discrimination had been eliminated.

A significant number of the ethnic minority people polled indicated they had suffered racial discrimination in the last 12 months, ranging from  28 per cent of the Pakistani respondents to 49 per cent of black Africans. It included abuse in workplaces and on the street.

Changing cultural landscape

In a foreword to the report, Trevor Phillips, the broadcaster and a senior fellow at Policy Exchange, said the racial and cultural landscape of the UK had changed so much that white Britain no longer determines what is normal for our society.

“In several of our largest cities, the white British are a minority in our schools; in a sense, we are moving to a world in which whoever you are you belong to a larger or smaller ethnic group with its own contribution and its own needs,” he said.

It had also seen traditional political alliances fracture with Indian Hindus, for example, abandoning Labour, while working class Caribbean voters’ support for Labour was entrenching.

“The evidence is that the cleavages between groups is no longer a marginal issue for public policy – it is the single most important challenge to decision-makers. Yet, bizarrely, neither this government nor the previous administration has created any institutional machinery – whether ministerial, civil service or arm’s length – dedicated to encouraging social and cultural integration,” he wrote.

“Indeed the default position of our political and media classes is to dismiss the questions raised by the changes in our nation as marginal. This is a catastrophic error of judgement for which we will pay dearly unless we act now.”