Reformers lead Conservatives by three points in shock poll

The Conservatives appear on the brink of disaster in the general election, with a new poll giving Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party a three-point lead.

The Whitestone poll for Reach plc newspapers puts the Reform Party on 21%, the Conservatives on just 18% while Labour maintains a clear lead at 38%.

Mr Sunak’s devastating result means that the job of opposition leader, coveted by Mr Farage, appears to be wide open.

However, by electoral calculation, in a general election this would leave the Conservatives with just 50 seats, giving the Reformers 29, but the Liberal Democrats would be the official opposition with 74 seats.

The shock poll comes despite a series of scandals that have hit the Reform Party and Mr Farage over the past week.

Channel 4 last night broadcast footage of a reformist activist from Clacton, where Farage hopes to become an MP, caught using racial slurs at Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The move follows the resignation of a party candidate over historical comments praising Hitler and accusations that Mr Farage himself had “rather appeased Vladimir Putin” by blaming the West for the invasion of Ukraine.

But the poll found that anger against the Conservatives among their traditional supporters appears to continue to fuel the Reform Party’s advance in the polls.

The gambling scandal that engulfed the Conservatives appears to have had a much bigger impact on voters.

Mr Farage claimed his party was ahead of the Conservatives everywhere outside London and Scotland.

Lachlan Rurlander, consultant at Whitestone Insight, said: “With just a week to go until polling day, these results suggest the position of opposition leader is still up for grabs.

“Reform UK managed to maintain some momentum and secured a three-point lead over the Conservatives, despite what was widely seen as a difficult week for Nigel Farage.”