Nigel Farage has welcomed Reform UK beating the Conservative Party in every major poll for the first time.
The leader of Reform UK posted on social media that his party had pulled ahead of the Conservatives in every major Westminster voting intention poll. He added: “We are just getting started.”
A Techne poll, conducted on January 29-30, puts Reform on 24%, the Tories on 23% and Labour on 26%. Find Out Now’s poll from January 29 has Reform on 27%, the Conservatives on 21% and Labour 23%.
Survation polling carried out on January 28-29 has Reform on 24%, the Tories on 22% and Labour on 27%. Opinium’s poll carried out on January 22-24 puts Reform on 27%, the Conservatives at 21% and Labour on 28%.
A YouGov poll from January 26-27 has Reform at 23%, the Tories 22% and Labour 27% while a More in Common poll has Reform on 25%, the Tories on 24% and Labour 25%.
Finally, Whitestone Insight’s poll taken on January 22-23 has Reform on 24% compared to the Tories on 20% and Labour just one percentage point ahead of Mr Farage’s party on 25%.
Zia Yusuf, who chairs Reform UK, has said previously that the latest polling confirms Reform has “all the momentum in British politics”.
Reform’s polling success comes as it holds a series of rallies across the UK in its bid to win more council seats and constituencies in the devolved nations in upcoming elections.
At a rally held in Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland, Mr Farage welcomed two defecting Conservative councillors to his party.
The same rally heard that people who voted remain in the Brexit referendum “shouldn’t be allowed to vote”.
John Elliott, a businessman who has leant his support to the party, shared a stage with Mr Farage as he made the tongue-in-cheek claim.
After asking if anyone at the rally had opposed Brexit and had now “seen the light”, Mr Elliott said: “I reckon anyone who voted remain shouldn’t be allowed to vote.
“Anybody who voted Labour in the last election… What’s their judgment like? Have they got good judgment?”
Mr Farage laughed but did not appear to take the suggestion seriously.
On Friday, Mr Farage compared Reform UK’s rise in the polls with Donald Trump’s presidential victory in the US. He told a rally in Essex: “People look at us and say ‘like Trump these people will get things done’, and believe me, we will.
“This is not just going to be an earthquake in British politics. This is going to be the biggest historical political change this country has ever seen.”
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has dismissed Reform UK as a “protest party”. She told broadcasters on Friday she was “not at all” worried about Reform’s presence in her constituency.
Asked about the polling numbers on a visit to a farm in Cheshire, Mrs Badenoch said it was “not a surprise that at the moment protest parties are gaining in the polls”.
In a sign Labour is taking the threat of Reform UK more seriously, Health Secretary Wes Streeting recently went on the attack, telling the Fabian Society in January that Mr Farage has a “miserablist, declinist” vision of Britain.
Mr Streeting said: “The populist right are coming for us and we need to be serious about beating them.”