Nigel Farage tells debate 'we're the opposition now' as Reform poll ahead of struggling Tories

General Election campaign 2024

Nigel Farage on Thursday declared Reform as the “opposition to Labour” after the party overtook the Conservatives in the polls for the first time.

A YouGov poll for the Times put Reform at 19 per cent – a single point ahead of the Tories.

The poll is a significant blow to the Tory campaign as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak attempts to claw back voters who have pivoted to Mr Farage’s party.

Labour is 19 points ahead of the Tories at 37 per cent, according to the poll. The Liberal Democrats were down one point at 14 per cent.

In London, the Tories face seeing their number of seats drop from 21 to just four, according to one poll.

Mr Farage, taking part in a seven-way debate on ITV1, said in his introduction: “I am Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK. Just before we came on air we overtook the Conservatives in the national opinion polls. We are now the opposition to Labour.”

The poll was conducted after the Conservatives released their manifesto on Tuesday, which included a pledge to cut national insurance by 2p and a national service scheme.

Only a fifth (22 per cent) of Reform voters thought Labour would win any kind of majority, according to the poll, despite Tory MPs warning voters not to give Sir Keir Starmer a “super majority” by voting for Mr Farage’s party.

YouGov surveyed 2,211 adults in Britain between June 12 and 13.

It came at the end of a day when Labour and Plaid Cymru launched their election manifestos.

At his launch in Manchester, Sir Keir Starmer said Labour had a plan to turn the country around after 14 years of Tory “chaos” but cautioned that there would be “no quick fix” if he is handed the keys to No 10 by voters on July 4.

Launching a manifesto which contained no new policy announcements, Sir Keir denied he was being overly cautious in his efforts to put his party back in power for the first time since 2010.

Repeatedly stressing how he had changed Labour since taking over from Jeremy Corbyn, Sir Keir said he was now offering a “serious plan for the future of our country”.

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