Almost a third of voters who backed the Conservatives in 2019 now support reform, data suggests.
According to a scathing YouGov poll, 32 per cent of those who backed Boris Johnson in the last election intend to vote for Nigel Farage’s party on July 4.
This comes after Reform overtook the Conservatives in the polls for the first time last night.
According to current projections, Farage’s team will win 19 percent of the public vote. For comparison, the Conservatives sit at around 17 per cent and Labor at 37 per cent.
Almost one in three people who voted for Boris Johnson in 2019 have switched their support to Nigel Farage’s Reform Party, figures show.
Last week, Mr Farage declared that the reformers were now the “opposition to Labour”.
He wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: ‘This is the tipping point. The only wasted vote now is a Conservative vote, we are the rivals of the Labor Party and we are on the right track.’
The poll shows there has been a Farage factor in the rise in support for Reform UK.
The week before his return to the frontline of politics, the party enjoyed the support of 28 per cent of 2019 Conservative voters, enjoying a four-point rise since the veteran Brexiteer announced he would lead the party and would run in the next elections.
The party has done well in polls among disillusioned Conservatives since late November 2023, and has not dropped below 20 percent since.
Voters who backed the Conservative Party in 2019 largely remained loyal throughout the party’s indictments, and more than 70 per cent still support the party.
The drop came during Liz Truss’s brief tenure as first minister, with just over half of Conservatives in 2019 saying they would back them next time at the end of September 2022.
At the time, however, it was Labor who were taking advantage.
Support for the Conservative Party has fallen and the latest opinion polls suggest Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives are in third place behind Farage’s party.
One in five Brexiteers have suggested they will support Sir Keir Starmer in the election.
The 2019 election was largely contested over compliance with leaving the EU, with Johnson promising to “get Brexit done”.
Not all pro-Brexit voters plan to back Farage at the polls in July, with one in five Brexiteers saying they will vote for Sir Keir.
Currently, the reform has more votes among men, those over 65 and people in the Midlands.
This is not the first time Reform has surveyed a third of former Conservative voters.
In early April this year there were reports of a record number of small boat crossings during the first three months of the year, with more than 5,000 arrivals by the end of March.