Katie Deutsch
According to a new YouGov poll of 2,465 adults, Reform UK is now considered more popular than Labour. 25% of those surveyed stated that, if a general election was called tomorrow, they would vote for Reform UK. In contrast, only 24% of those surveyed said Labour and 21% said they would vote Conservative. In their last poll, Reform UK had 23% of the vote, and Labour had 27%.
Lib Dems and the Green party have both held steady, at 14% and 9%, respectively.
It is, however, important to note that the poll has a margin of error of four points and that all of the changes to the poll come within that margin. While this likely does not symbolise any major shift in voters, this is likely to be an important piece of information for politicians from all groups. One in five voters now say that they are voting tactically, which may influence the next general election heavily. This could also influence the accuracy of this poll- while 25% might say that they would like to vote for Reform UK, they could potentially tactically vote for another party.
Nigel Farage has the highest political favorability
Another poll of 2533 adults has found that, of the party leaders, Nigel Farage has the highest political favorability, with 30% of the population looking on him favourably. He is followed by Keir Starmer at 27%, and then Ed Davey at 26%. However, Nigel Farage also has 62% of the population that considers him ‘unfavourable’, with the remaining 9% unsure. This is similar to Keir Starmer, where 65% of the population considers him unfavourable, with 9% unsure. When you consider how few seats the Lib Dems have, Ed Davey has a high approval rating, but he also has a very high rate of people reporting that they ‘don’t know’ how they feel about him.
Altogether, these polls suggest that the UK population is unhappy with the current state of politics- and perhaps, that something will need to change. This may lead, as the polls suggest, to an increased popularity of Reform UK. However, if the other parties take advantage of this, it could lead to any party gaining support.
Katie Deutsch
Featured image courtesy of @eagleboobs via Unsplash. Image use license found here (Unsplash). No changes were made to this image.
