Nigel Farage makes extraordinary boast as Reform overtakes Tories in ballot

Nigel Farage has claimed “we are now the opposition” after Reform overtook the Tories in an opinion poll.

The YouGov survey showed support for his party rising by two points to 19%, as the Tories remained on 18%. The poll, conducted after the launch of the Conservative manifesto on Tuesday, showed Labour down one point to 37%.

At the start of a seven-way debate on ITV, Mr Farage said: “Just before we came on air we overtook the Conservatives in the national opinion polls. We are now the opposition to Labour.”

Angela Rayner snapped back at a suggestion from Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer that Labour is being timid. “I have never been called timid in my life,” she said. The Labour Deputy Leader urged voters to “turn the page and have change in Britain” on July 4.

She took on Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt on the Tory record on the health service. “The NHS is one of our proudest achievements and it will be Labour that will have to fix it again,” she said.

“Before I was an MP, I was a Unison rep and I was a home care worker. And in 2010 the Tories, aided and abetted by the Lib Dems, created austerity, which meant many of our workforce were made redundant. And now we’ve got the crisis in the NHS. So we’ve got to fix the workforce problem and we’ve got to invest.”

Ms Mordaunt was laughed at by the studio audience when she suggested the country’s schools are “world class”.