Hard work, fair play and community are the values that voters – no matter which political party, age group, social class or region they come from – instinctively believe capture what it means to be British, according to a large-scale study of British values by Public First. Only 27% of those polled thought the royal family played the biggest role in upholding British values today, however. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian“Hard-working” topped the list of qualities the public associated with British people, with 70% describing hard work as a British value. Sunder Katwala, the director of British Future, said the report showed that British people had become not only more divided, but more “discomfited by how divided we feel”. View image in fullscreen ‘People are looking for a unifying sense of what we share,’ said Sunder Katwala, the director of British Future.