The role that education plays in shaping an individual’s political attitudes and behaviour is increasingly well-observed across established democracies, including in Great Britain (Apfeld et al., 2024). Graduate status divides British voters on issues (such as immigration) and has led to the emergence of new parties (Reform UK) and the transformation of existing ones (Conservatives after Brexit). Some argue that it represents a new cleavage across Western Europe (Ford and Jennings, 2020). Extrapolating from the Danish case (Stubager, 2010), we test whether higher education constitutes a new political cleavage in Great Britain. We use a new representative survey of the British public, including survey experiments, to develop a measure of education-based social identity among British voters. Next, we examine the political effects of this identity, finding that it motivates political attitudes, vote choice and candidate preference, suggesting that the education divide will continue to restructure party competition.