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Author: Tom Cheshire, online campaign correspondent

New research by YouGov conducted exclusively for Sky News shows that more people in the UK believe that immigration has a negative impact on society compared to a positive one.

In the UK, 43% of people questioned think so immigration has a negative impact on British society compared to 35% who said it had a positive impact.

Although results varied by location, only in London and Scotland were people more likely to say immigration had a positive impact.

There were clear differences between age groups: 54% of 18- to 24-year-olds think immigration has a positive impact. However, among people aged 65 and over, 58% believe that the impact of immigration on society is negative.

Opinions about the economic benefits of immigration were more mixed, and the results were quite even: 39% of respondents believed that immigration had a positive impact on the economy, while 37% said that the impact was negative.

However, the poll showed a clear gender divide: only 34% of women said immigration had a positive impact on the economy, compared with 43% of men.

Respondents also believed that restricting immigration would have a negative impact on the NHS, hospitality, universities and social care, but a positive impact on housing.

The survey also revealed deep political distrust among the public: 52% said they thought Labor was not telling the truth about what it thought about immigration, and 49% said the same about the Conservatives. Every region and demographic group distrusted the two major parties on this issue.

And people largely believed that governments – of any party – could restrict immigration if they really wanted to, but that it would have negative consequences that they did not want to face.

Reform UK is the only party that the public believes tells the truth on immigration: 60% agreed the party said what they really thought.

People also don’t trust the two main parties to keep their promises. People thought immigration would increase under both Labor and Conservative governments – despite the belief that their policies were intended to reduce it.

Overwhelmingly, people believe that war, poverty and gangs are mainly responsible for the increase in immigration – compared to just 1% who think climate change is the main cause, or 4% who think it is Brexit.