Reform UK has stunned us all with more than 600 local election wins, flipping Tory strongholds and claiming its fifth MP. With a booming Gen-Z following and rising poll numbers, the insurgent party is now threatening to upend two-party politics for good. Are you worried?
After Reform UK won major ground in the local elections, its leader Nigel Farage boasted the results showed the ‘beginning of the end of the Conservative Party’.
The astonishing surge in popularity – with more than 600 gains for the right-wing populist party so far – could well spell the end of ‘two-party politics’, with Keir Starmer suffering a string of bitter results – including defeat in a key by-election.
Reform won 677 of around 1,600 seats contested on Thursday, seizing control of eight authorities from the beleaguered Tories, including the former staunchly blue strongholds of Kent and Staffordshire. Farage’s mob also won control of Doncaster and Durham.
Not content with that, they also displaced Labour in Runcorn and Helsby, in a tightly-contested by-election to make Sarah Pochin its fifth MP. The icing on the cake saw the right-wingers win its first mayoral contests in the newly-created combined authorities of Greater Lincolnshire, and Hull and East Yorkshire.
Now with five seats in the 650-member House of Commons, Reform is clearly on the march – but does that worry you at all?
The party got about 14% of the vote in last year’s national election, and recent polls show its support is now as strong as, or stronger than, Labour and the Conservatives. Reform hopes to replace the Tories as the main right-wing party before the next national election, expected by 2029. So are you worried about the rise of Reform UK? If you can’t see the poll, click here
A poll conducted by YouGov last month showed voter intention if there was a General Election called right now. And it revealed a very tight race, with the three main parties all polling within the margin of error. Labour lead slightly with 24%. Reform UK was closely behind at 23% and the Conservatives on 22%. The Liberal Democrats rose to 15% while the Greens held steady at 9%.
Support for Reform UK is clearly increasing – with a poll conducted at the tail end of last year showing the party just one percentage point behind Labour.
Nigel Farage’s clan have now managed to push the beleaguered Tories into third place. The first YouGov poll since the general election reflected a real drop in satisfaction with the government, a surge in support for Reform UK, and shows how the Labour vote has now split in all directions.
The figures did not reflect well on Keir Starmer’s standing with the nation, with Labour on 26%, Reform UK on 25%, Conservatives on 22%, Liberal Democrats on 14% and Greens on 8%. The figures show a dramatic switch from last summer’s general election, when Labour was on 35%, Conservatives on 24%, Reform UK on 15%, Lib Dem on 13% and Greens on 7%.
Since July, Reform UK’s vote has rapidly grown at the expense of all other parties, with 16% of voters who backed the Conservatives at the ballot last year now saying they’d support Reform, according to the poll carried out for Sky News.
Since Nigel Farage made his surprise return to frontline politics last summer, he’s been ramping up his anti-establishment rhetoric even further – and it’s going down a storm with younger voters. Reform UK has been keen to engage with a more youthful audience on TikTok, and their efforts are paying off handsomely, already racking up north of 300,000 followers – more than any other major political party on the platform, with Labour on 233,500 and the Tories on just 84,700.
Founded in 2021 as the re-launch of the Brexit Party, with Farage taking the helm in June this year, Reform now has five MPs in Parliament, rubbing elbows with the very establishment it constantly rails against. And the right-wingers have been busy trying to break free of being just the ‘Nigel Farage show’ and expand its supporter base – something it appears to be excelling at.
So, how’s Reform UK managing to tap into younger voters when the median age of its MPs is 60? The answer, in part, lies in platforms such as TikTok, where Gen-Z spend a lot of their time. And it’s not just the party’s official TikTok that’s doing well. Farage himself boasts more than a million followers on the platform – something he was quick to point out at a recent press conference.
Reform UK appear to be catching the Tories in terms of membership, boasting more than 100,000 in its ranks as of November 2024. This puts them behind the Conservatives on 131,680 and way behind Labour on 366,604.
Farage’s party might just be onto something with its Gen-Z outreach. It’s a work in progress, but the party does seem to be slowly finding its footing with a younger crowd – does this worry you?
What do YOU think? Are you worried about the rise of Reform? Take our poll above and expand on your feelings in the comments below.
