In a sign of the shifting landscape in Britain, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is now the most popular political leader in Wales, according to a recent survey.
A poll conducted by Survation has found that Nigel Farage would be the most popular political party leader in Wales if he were formally designated as the party chief for Wales.
The survey from the pollster that correctly predicted the 2016 Brexit Referendum found that 30 per cent of Welsh voters back the Reform UK leader, compared to 21 per cent of Labour Party Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan, 19 per cent for the Welsh Conservative’s Andrew RT Davies, and 22 per cent for the leftist Welsh nationalist leader Rhun ap Iorwerth.
While Reform does not currently have a leader specified for Wales as Mr Farage serves as a UK-wide chief like Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for the Labour Party and Kemi Badenoch for the neo-liberal Conservatives, the survey will come as a boon for Farage as he seeks to overthrow the Tories as the principal opposition party to Labour in Wales.
Speaking to GB News as he rallied for Reform in Newport, Wales, Mr Farage said: “I think the voters in Wales don’t look at the Conservative Party as a viable alternative.
“Our aim is to replace the Conservatives as the main opposition to Labour and to take the fight to them in the Senedd elections.
“If you believe the opinion polls that are out this morning, we already are making real progress.”
In addition to his personal popularity in the UK country, Farage’s party has surged to 19 per cent in the polls for the 2026 elections for the locally devolved Welsh Senedd parliament. This represented an 18 per cent increase over the 2021 election when Mr Farage was not leading the party and puts Reform ahead of the Tories in Wales for the first time.
The increase in support did not just draw from Conservatives, however, with the scandal-ridden governing Welsh Labour Party falling by seven points to 29 per cent.
As in the UK more broadly, Mr Farage’s strategy will be to win over disaffected working-class Labour supporters, whom he has argued have been forgotten by the left-wing party in favour of woke urban elites and ethnic minorities.
Reform’s working-class appeal was demonstrated by its support in the de-industrialised South Wales Valleys, where the party has climbed to 26 per cent support.
At a rally in Newport over the weekend, Mr Farage said: “Labour’s national government is bad enough, but have a look at what Labour has done in Wales with devolved powers over the last few years.
“The biggest waiting lists for the NHS in the whole of the country, failing education, lunatic woke policies on a scale that is almost unimaginable, not to mention 20 mile an hour speed limits.
“Thanks to Labour’s devotion to the net zero agenda, primary steelmaking in South Wales is at an end. I think they’ve failed completely.”
