A fresh blow has been dealt to the spent force once known as the Conservative Party as Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is increasingly seen not only as the party best placed to tackle immigration and lawlessness, but to fix Britain’s economy as well. That comes from a new poll by Freshwater Strategy on behalf of City AM which found Reform is considered the party most likely to support UK business needs. On a scale of 0 to 10, Reform was rated an average of 4.8, with the Tories on 4.4 and Labour on 3.8.
Amid rising exasperation with Sir Keir Starmer’s government, business associations including the British Chambers of Commerce and Confederation of British Industry are sending delegates to Reform’s upcoming party conference, a sign of growing anticipation of a Farage government. The same poll had Reform 11 points ahead of Labour (33 to 22) with the Tories stuck in third place on 18.
Meanwhile, YouGov’s latest poll made for mixed reading for Labour – with Reform 6 points ahead versus 7 in the last YouGov poll – but Labour still down 1 point from the previous poll and with the Lib Dems up by 1 point. The Tories remained unchanged.
While Reform’s policies on border control and justice are perhaps the most eye-catching, given the exodus of wealthy Brits abroad and a steady outflow of young entrepreneurs, Reform’s plan to cut taxes and red tape, while killing the costs of net zero, seem to be winning hearts and minds.
Reform deputy leader Richard Tice recently said: “You’ve got to make work pay for employees, and you’ve got to make risk-taking pay for entrepreneurs and business owners.”
Labour’s plan to redistribute wealth wouldn’t be so bad perhaps if the party hadn’t developed a record for economic incompetence.
We all know a wealth tax would be less likely to fund frontline services like the NHS and more likely to bankroll middle managers, consultants and the bottomless pit of debt repayments.
As for Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives, it’s hard to take seriously a party which so abysmally failed to fix Britain’s problems even after 14-and-a-half years in office.
Labour can thank its lucky stars the British people don’t have any direct democratic mechanism to force an early election.
Instead the Brits get to enjoy four more years of this government. Reform must guard against peaking too soon but, so far at least, the party’s momentum is not being lost.
A change of leadership for either Labour or the Tories could make Nigel Farage’s job that much harder but, for now at least, nothing seems able to stop the turquoise tidal wave.