Farage-Founded Reform UK Hits Polling High, Closes in on Floundering Tories

HARTLEPOOL, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 23: MEP and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage (L) and party
Ian Forsyth/Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

The populist Reform UK party has surged to its highest-ever recorded position in the polls and is now within striking distance of the Tories as the so-called Conservative Party continues to spurn its own voter base.

A survey from the YouGov polling firm has found that the Nigel Farage-founded Reform UK has climbed to 14 per cent in public support, a record high for the re-branded Brexit Party, doubling the support logged for the anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats at seven per cent.

Meanwhile, the governing Conservative Party of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak only mustered 20 per cent support, putting the populist upstart within reach of surpassing one of the Western world’s most electorally successful parties.

However, despite a recent slew of antisemitism scandals, the left-wing Labour Party of Sir Keir Starmer maintains its commanding position in the polls at 46 per cent.

“This is Reform UK’s highest vote intention share to date, with the party currently taking 21 per cent of those who voted Conservative in 2019,” YouGov said. ‘The Tories are holding on to just 35 per cent of their previous voters, with 12 per cent going to Labour and 20 per cent unsure.”

The poll was conducted from February 28th to the 29th, in immediate the aftermath of the Conservative Party’s decision to suspend popular MP and former deputy chairman Lee Anderson from the party in the House of Commons over suggesting that London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Starmer were under the “control” of Islamists.

In the wake of the suspension, reportedly leaked messages from fellow Conservative MPs appeared to show lawmakers admit that the party had made a mistake in removing the whip from Anderson and that the move had angered their constituents, with some voters telling their representatives that Anderson’s suspension was “the final nail in the party’s coffin” and that they would never vote Conservative again.

Meanwhile, Nigel Farage, who still serves as the honorary president of Reform UK, has publicly courted Anderson in an attempt to see the MP defect from the Tories and join Reform.

For his part, Anderson has said that he will not rule out joining the populist party and has reportedly held one-on-one talks with party boss Richard Tice last week.

The surge in the polls for Reform also comes after the insurgent party held its Spring Conference in Doncaster where Tice unveiled his party’s electoral platform for the next general election, dubbed the “Contract with You”.

Tice said that Britain has “so much potential” and that Brexit has afforded the country an “opportunity of a lifetime”, but that all of this was being squandered by poor leadership in Westminster, which has left the country “worse off, both financially and culturally” as a result of sky-high taxes, over-regulation, the green agenda, and mass migration.

“The Tories have broken Britain. Labour will bankrupt Britain. Starmergeddon awaits. Neither of them recognises how bad things are or has a credible plan to grow us out of this mess,” Tice said.

The Reform UK boss said that his party would immediately scrap the “Net Zero” green agenda, cut government waste and red tape, and instruct the Bank of England to stop voluntarily paying interest on Quantitative Easting printed money. He said that through these three measures, they estimate that the government could save more than £100 billion per year, which they would devote largely to cutting taxes to help the economy grow and let workers keep more of their own money.

The populist party also called for the UK to follow the successful example of the United States in tapping into shale gas, which Tice said could be “worth many hundreds of billions to the taxpayer.” Finally, Reform pledged to “freeze non-essential migration and focus on helping our own citizens first” adding that “multiculturalism has failed us badly”.

In contrast, under Rishi Sunak’s so-called Conservative Party, the UK saw yet another immigration record broken, with 1.4 million visas handed out to foreigners over the past year, despite the longstanding promises from the party to the public to cut mass migration.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on X: or e-mail to: kzindulka@breitbart.com

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.