Tories warned Labour’s unpopularity is ‘inadequate’ to revive their fortunes as Reform UK profit most from Keir Starmer’s rocky begin as PM
The Tories have been warned that an unpopular Labour Government is ‘insufficient’ to see them recover their fortunes.
Pollsters at Survation said Nigel Farage‘s Reform UK was now providing an ‘alternative channel’ for right-leaning voters.
Their final voting intention poll of the year found Labour were backed by 30 per cent of voters – a four-point decline since July’s general election.
The Tories were up one point to 25 per cent, with Reform up six points to 20 per cent.
Survation said Reform had been the ‘biggest beneficiaries’ of Labour’s fall in support amid Sir Keir Starmer’s rocky start to his spell as Prime Minister.
It came as Mr Farage used his New Year’s message to claim Britain had been ‘appallingly led’ for several decades.
In a video filmed at Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill, the Reform leader said ‘there’s a buzz, there’s an energy, there’s an optimism’ around his party.
He added that ‘tens of thousands of people’ had joined Reform over the Christmas period.
Survation’s final voting intention poll of the year found Labour were backed by 30 per cent of voters – a four-point decline since July’s general election
Nigel Farage used his New Year’s message to claim Britain had been ‘appallingly led’ for several decades
In a video filmed at Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill, the Reform leader said ‘there’s a buzz, there’s an energy, there’s an optimism’ around his party
Mr Farage has spent the past few days engaged in a bitter spat with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch over Reform’s membership figures
Labour won a House of Commons majority of 174 at July’s general election to replace the Tories in power, but saw their victory dubbed a ‘loveless landslide’.
Jack Peacock, strategy and research manager at Survation, said the electorate had not given a ‘ringing endorsement’ of Labour this summer.
He wrote in a blog post: ‘This is reflected in the prevailing view that despite winning the largest majority since 1997, the past six months have been a struggle for the party.’
But he cautioned that a slump in Labour’s popularity would not automatically benefit the Tories.
‘An unpopular Labour government alone is insufficient to drive a Conservative recovery, as right-leaning voters have an alternative channel for expressing their dissatisfaction,’ he added.
Vote shares for the major parties such as those in the final Survation poll of 2024 ‘could stretch the first-past-the-post to its breaking point’, the polling expert continued.
Mr Farage has spent the past few days engaged in a bitter spat with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch over Reform’s membership figures.
Their row erupted after an online counter on Reform’s website indicated the party now had more members than the last known Tory figure of 131,680.
But Ms Badenoch claimed the counter was ‘a fake’ and ‘coded to tick up automatically’, prompting Reform to consider legal action.
In his New Year’s message, Mr Farage said that Reform had since passed 150,000 members.
‘The fish rots from the head down,’ he added in his video filmed at Blenheim Palace.
‘We’ve been appallingly led in this country now for several decades.
‘We’re in societal decline, we’re in economic decline, most people are getting poorer with every year that passes, we’re losing any sense of national identity and we’re actually teaching kids at school that people like Winston Churchill – born in this palace – are bad people and that our country’s history is something to be ashamed of.’
The Duke of Marlborough, who is Winston Churchill’s great nephew and the current occupant of Blenheim Palace, revealed himself to be a Reform supporter ahead of the general election.
The Duke, also known as Jamie Blandford or Jamie Churchill, wore a Reform rosette at Royal Ascot in June.
He claimed Mr Farage ‘could end up in the same league’ as his famous ancestor and Britain’s wartime PM.
