UK Reform Party leader Nigel Farage speaks to supporters during the launch of his campaign at Clacton Pier in Clacton-on-Sea, UK, 4 June 2024.
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LONDON – The re-emergence of Brexiteer Nigel Farage has added wind to the sails of Britain’s populist right-wing Reform UK party, with new polls showing they are closing in on the ruling Conservatives ahead of Britain’s upcoming general election.
Reform is now just two points behind the Tories, according to the latest YouGov report polling Sky News released parts of the campaign on Thursday.
Online polls show Labor is expected to win 40% of the vote, the Conservatives 19% and the Reform Party 17%.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives are widely expected to lose to the opposition Labor Party in next month’s election, ending a long and tumultuous 14 years in power.
Farage’s unexpected return as leader of the Reform Party on Monday dealt a fatal blow to the party, threatening to steal large numbers of votes from the right.
The last-minute shift will leave the Conservatives with fewer seats in the House of Commons than previously expected and could trigger a reckoning within the shrinking party. Some analysts say this would push the party further to the right – possibly with Farage at the helm.
Farage did not rule out eventually joining the “reset and recalibrate” Conservative Party, saying last year he would “never give up”.
Farage, a Eurosceptic who led the Leave campaign in the 2016 Brexit referendum, said he was running for a parliamentary seat in Clacton, a town on the east coast of England where support for Brexit was high. Previous YouGov polls showed the Conservatives winning the seat.
This marks the politician-turned-media personality’s eighth run for Congress, having never been successful before.
Farage is hostile to the Conservative Party. At the 2019 election, the then-Brexit Party agreed not to field candidates in hundreds of seats to ensure a Conservative win. He has since accused the party of failing to deliver political power and said on Monday it was time to “revolt”.
“What I am really calling for – or what I intend to lead – is a political revolt,” he told a so-called “urgent” news conference in London.
The announcement hardened the Conservative Party’s stance on immigration and Britain’s accession to the European Convention on Human Rights, undermining Sunak’s previous efforts to win votes on the right. Recent announcements about the reintroduction of compulsory military service, pensioner tax protection and a new gender definition are also seen as attempts to attract potential reform voters.
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