WE have the highest death toll in Europe and almost one quarter of workers have been furloughed - but Tory voters still think coronavirus will make the UK stronger.

The result comes from new research by pollsters Ipsos MORI and shows Conservative supporters are alone in their optimism.

The company asked more than 1000 adults across the UK whether "Britain will be stronger when it gets through" the pandemic, or if the crisis will be so tough that it will leave the UK "weaker for years to come".

More than half of Tory voters said the UK will emerge stronger - compared to just one in four of the general public and one in three Labour voters.

READ MORE: Covid-19: Newspaper front pages shy away from death toll news

The breakdown did not include any other party allegiances.

The survey is a repeat of one carried out in the third week of March.

The opinions of the general public and Labour backers are largely unchanged, with the largest shift seen amongst Conservatives, where optimism has dipped by 8%. 

When asked to think about the potential impacts on society, 60% say richer people will be less than affected than those with lower incomes. This rises to more than 70% for Labour supporters.

And around half say people from ethnic minorities will be harder hit than white people.

That finding comes as analysis from the Institue for Fiscal Studies shows the death rate in English hospitals for UK-born black Africans and Pakistanis is more than 2.5 times higher than that of white patients.

The new poll also shows that 60% of people think UK society is now more divided than it was ten years ago.

And the degree of pride in Britishness has fallen.

In 2016 - the last time the question was asked - 60% of people said they would rather be a citizen of Britain than any other country on Earth.

That has now slipped to 56%.

Those most proud of their British citizenship included those aged 55-75, people who voted Tory in 2019 and Leave voters.

Gideon Skinner, head of politics at Ipsos MORI, commented: "Coronavirus hasn’t solved all the divisions in British society, but there are small signs that we are feeling less divided than we were last year, and most of us are still proud to be British. 

"However there are concerns about the unequal impact of coronavirus – particularly on the elderly, those on low incomes, urban areas and ethnic minorities. 

"The data suggests that, understandably,  it may be the most serious health effects on vulnerable groups that is uppermost in the public mind at the moment – our wider research shows that in some other aspects, such as the financial impact or the impact on people’s mental health, it is younger groups who feel more at risk.”