Hard-right Reform UK outstrips Tories for first time in poll
LONDON
The Conservative party of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has fallen behind the hard-right anti-immigration Reform U.K. party for the first time in a poll by YouGov, which called the development a "seismic shift."
The new poll, conducted on June 12-13 , shows Brexiteer Nigel Farage's Reform with 19 percent support going into national elections next month, compared to the Conservatives' 18 percent. Both are trailing far behind the centre-left Labour party.
YouGov noted it was "worth keeping sight of the fact that these figures are well within the margin of error of one another, we will not be able to tell for some time whether Reform can sustain or improve their position relative to the Conservatives."
Still, it added: "The fact that Nigel Farage's party are neck and neck with the governing Conservatives is a seismic shift in the voting landscape."
The poll showed the Labour party, led by Keir Starmer, still in a commanding lead at 37 percent, in line with other surveys that have put it some 20 points ahead for nearly two years.
Given the hefty and sustained polling lead, Starmer is widely expected to become the next prime minister.
But he is still fighting to overcome persistent Conservative claims that his party will recklessly spend public finances and increase personal taxes, a perennial jibe from right-wingers.
Farage, who at the last general election in 2019 did a deal with the Conservatives to avoid splitting the right-wing vote, claimed on June 13 that Reform, rather than the Conservatives, now represents the main opposition party to Labour.
How the opinion poll will play out if it is replicated on election day is unclear, with Britain's winner-takes-all first-past-the-post system favouring the bigger parties.
