Labour overtakes Reform as Farage’s finance scandal and Clacton farce take their toll - Reform Watch

Labour has overtaken Reform UK in a Westminster voting intention poll following Andy Burnham’s first week as Prime Minister. The More in Common survey, conducted between 24 and 27 July, puts Labour on 28 per cent, an increase of four points. Reform has fallen two points to 24 per cent, while the Conservatives remain on 22 per cent. It is Labour’s strongest result with the firm since the opening months of the government in 2024. Farage’s party is now under sustained scrutiny over the money that helped finance its rise. The Metropolitan Police are investigating £500,000 in donations made through Britain Means Business, a company controlled by Reform deputy leader Richard Tice. The company had received £1 million from Fiona Cottrell, whose son George Cottrell is a close Farage associate with a conviction for wire fraud. Police are examining whether electoral law was broken, while Reform insists its donations complied with the rules. The Financial Times has also revealed that Reform’s bank account was frozen for around two weeks during the 2024 general election while compliance checks were carried out. Farage has faced separate questions about a £5 million personal gift from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne and financial support allegedly provided by George Cottrell. A parliamentary standards investigation into an alleged failure to register an interest was suspended after Farage resigned as an MP. Farage responded to the growing scrutiny by resigning his Clacton seat and immediately standing again in the by-election he created. He wanted a grand confrontation with the political establishment. Labour and the other major parties refused to participate, leaving Farage in a record field of 34 candidates on 13 August. His principal challenger is Count Binface. The man who presents himself as Britain’s prime minister in waiting is now spending Reform’s money and diverting its campaign operation towards fighting a candidate wearing a silver bin on his head. The contest has become a public demonstration of Farage’s political vanity, funded by a party already facing serious questions about where its money came from. This poll offers an early indication that the damage may be reaching voters. Reform’s support has fallen while Farage’s finances dominate the headlines and his supposedly historic by-election descends into ridicule. Reform built its appeal by attacking an unaccountable political class. Its own leadership now responds to legitimate scrutiny by crying conspiracy and instructing supporters to dismiss a police investigation as an establishment stitch-up. Farage’s claim to inevitability looks considerably weaker when his party’s finances are under investigation and his great political showdown is against a bin.