NIGEL Farage is now more popular with voters than Sir Keir Starmer – as Reform surged ahead of Labour in the polls.
The populist party leader leapfrogged the Prime Minister in YouGov’s favourability tracker for the first time today.
It will jangle nerves in Downing Street as the right-wing insurgents continue to make strides ahead of May’s local elections.
The poll revealed that if an election were held tomorrow, 27 per cent of Brits would vote for Reform, ahead of 25 for Labour and 21 for the Tories.
A Marmite figure, Mr Farage has a net favourability rating of -30, with 60 per cent of people disliking him compared to 30 per cent who like him.
That is more popular than Sir Keir’s -40 score, with 66 per cent of respondents having an unfavourable view compared to 26 per cent favourable.
It is also higher than Kemi Badenoch’s -34, from 51 per cent declaring her unfavourable and 17 per cent who like her.
While most have made their minds up on Mr Farage and Sir Keir, a chunky 31 per cent of respondents replied “don’t know” when asked on the Tory leader.
It suggests she has struggled to make an impression as yet, but still has time to win people round.
Every single party leader was in negative territory, as is often the case in British political polling.
Mr Farage’s slight uptick in February comes as he ramped up attacks on the government over mass migration and the controversial Chagos deal.
The Reform boss hopes to use May’s local elections to inflict more blows on the two main parties and fuel his long-term aim of becoming prime minister.
He has spent time professionaling the party in order to convert millions of votes into seats in Parliament.
Last July Reform won 14.3 per cent of the vote, but only 0.8 per cent of the constituencies.
Reform has all the momentum – but can Nigel Farage really become PM?
By JACK ELSOM, Chief Political Correspondent
DOES Nigel Farage finally stand on the precipice of becoming Prime Minister?
The man himself certainly hasn’t been coy in revealing his ambition for the top job.
All the momentum is with Reform: a membership surge, high-profile defections, mass rallies – and a Labour and Tory party struggling to land a glove.
With such wind under his sails, it’s becoming harder for the Brexiteer to contain his trademark Cheshire Cat grin.
Farage is not naive, he knows he has a mountain to climb. He has seen this movie before.
In his heyday with UKIP, he secured 12.5 per cent of the electorate in 2015 – and returned just one MP.
In July, Reform came third on votes with 14.3 per cent – and returned just five MPs.
Farage is a world-beater at galvanising a mass supporters movement, and has proved that time over.
But if he is serious about getting to No10, he needs to do something much more challenging: break a political system that has stood for centuries.
Getting millions of votes is all well and good, yet it counts for nowt if he’s coming second in hundreds of seats.
Farage knows this and is adapting. Since becoming leader, he and his impressive chairman Zia Yusuf have been quietly professionalising the Reform outfit.
No longer a cavalier rabble, they are looking to raise serious sums of cash to pour into data-driven campaigning and advertising.
Get that right, and Reform will become an even greater force to be reckoned with.
