Nigel Farage’s Reform Party has overtaken Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives in a poll for the first time ever. The YouGov survey for The Times showed Reform had increased by two points bringing them to 19 per cent over all while the Tories remained unchanged at 18 per cent.
The blow is a landmark victory for the Reform Party and a significant blow to the Conservatives who just released their manifesto on Tuesday (June 11). 80 per cent of those backing Reform said a very large Labour majority would be a bad thing for the country, however.
Conservative strategists have positioned themselves to warn people off voting Reform based on this sentiment, saying that voting for Farage’s party could hand Labour a super majority leading to a decade of Labour rule.
READ MORE: Nigel Farage’s quiet life in pretty Bromley village where average home costs £600k
56 per cent of those polled also believed that Rishi Sunak’s decision to leave the D-Day commemorations early was a “serious error”. 64 per cent of these people were Reform voters and 48 per cent were undecided.
Meanwhile, Labour sit on a 19-point lead over the Conservatives, with 37 per cent overall. The Lib Dems are at 14 per cent.
Anthony Wells, head of European political and social research at YouGov, told The Times the poll was a “politically important point of showing Reform ahead of the Conservatives.”
He added: “Obviously all polls have a margin of error, so we can’t conclude for certain that more voters now back Nigel Farage’s party over the Conservatives. But what it does make clear is that at the very least the Conservatives and Reform are at a very similar level of support to each other. That in itself is remarkable given how close we are to an election when we might otherwise have expected smaller parties’ votes to be squeezed.”
YouGov questioned more than 2,200 adults in an online poll on Wednesday and Thursday.
Get the biggest stories from around London straight to your inbox. Sign up to MyLondon’s The 12 HERE for the 12 biggest stories each day.
