Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party surpassed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives in an opinion poll for the first time, Reuters reported.
The YouGov poll for the Times revealed that Reform UK had 19%, up from 17% secured previously. The Conservative Party, meanwhile, remained with 18%. The opposition Labour Party led the poll with 37%.
The poll of 2,211 people was conducted on 12-13 June after Sunak had pledged a 17-billion-pound ($21.70 billion) tax cut for workers in his party’s election manifesto.
The Reform party’s ratings rose after Farage announced he was returning to frontline politics, taking over the party leadership and running for parliamentary elections. Voters know him for his successful campaign for Britain’s exit from the European Union.
This is the inflection point. The only wasted vote now is a Conservative vote, we are the challengers to Labour and we are on our way.
A minor national-oriented party founded in 2018 as the Brexit Party, Reform favours hard-hitting issues like tougher immigration laws.
Sunak’s election campaign faced heavy critics after he left a D-Day memorial event in France earlier than other world leaders. Earlier, Sunak wrote on X, referring to his early departure from the ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings in France.
The UK has a first-past-the-post electoral system. It means Reform UK can win millions of votes across the country without winning any of the 650 individual parliamentary constituencies.
