Nigel Farage’s right-populist Reform UK party has surged to a record high in a national poll as support for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s leftist Labour government has collapsed just over 100 days after sweeping to power with a large majority.
“It is only a matter of time before Reform leads a national opinion poll,” Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe declared on Sunday following the release of a survey from More in Common showing the highest-ever level of support for the Farage-led party.
According to the survey of 2,000 people, Reform now stands at 21 per cent nationally, the best-ever result for the upstart populist party recorded by the pollster after climbing two points since its last poll.
Meanwhile, the governing Labour Party has seen its long-held lead in the polls utterly collapse since it swept to power in July. The survey showed Labour support fell to the same level as the lowly Tories, with both parties now standing at 27 per cent.
The Times of London reported that allies of Starmer’s are now privately concerned that Reform could surpass Labour by the time voters head back to the polls next year for local elections.
Farage and Reform have publicly stated that rather than targeting Tory supporters, the party’s principal mission will be to woo voters from the ‘Red Wall’ working-class areas of the country which have traditionally backed the Labour Party but who mostly voted to leave the EU in the 2016 Brexit referendum over concerns about mass migration.
While Prime Minsiter Starmer vowed to “smash the gangs” of people smugglers trafficking illegal migrants across the English Channel, the stream of boats carrying foreigners to British shores has continued unabated, with around 12,000 aliens arriving since the left-wing party came to power a little over three months ago.
The failure of Starmer to stem the tide of illegals arriving in the country was listed as the biggest failure of the new government by 22 per cent of respondents, the third biggest reason listed.
Failures on immigration only came behind Labour’s decision to scrap winter fuel subsidies to pensioners amid the ongoing economic and energy price crises which continue to haunt the UK, with 49 per cent listing the move as the government’s biggest failure so far.
In second place, at 32 per cent, was Starmer’s scheme to release prisoners early to deal with the overcrowding of jails and to make room for those who took part in the anti-mass migration riots and protests over the summer following the Southport stabbing that left three young girls dead and several others injured at the alleged hands of a second-generation Rwandan migrant.
Additionally, the government has been facing a growing scandal surrounding “freebie” gifts accepted by Starmer and top members of his government from top Labour donors. The prime minister disclosed that since taking over at the helm of Labour, he has taken in over £134,000 in gifts and hospitality from Labour Peer Lord Waheed Alli for “work clothes”, designer glasses, and the use of the media mogul’s central London penthouse and Soho townhouse.
The scandal prompted leading MP Rosie Duffield to quit the party, accusing the government of betraying the party’s supposed altruistic ideals and saying that the “sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice are off the scale.”
Commenting on the results of the poll, the director of More in Common UK, Luke Tryl said: “From a public opinion perspective, the first 100 days of a Labour government could be described as disappointing at best.
“The public are fairly united in saying the government has had a bad start, and rate the government’s performance as a D minus. Meanwhile, their poll lead has evaporated and Keir Starmer’s approval sits in the doldrums.”
