‘Racist’ and ‘liar’ top descriptions of Farage as voters brand Reform untrustworthy and extreme - Reform Watch

Reform UK heads into its party conference with support falling, Nigel Farage’s personal ratings collapsing and a public increasingly convinced that the party is untrustworthy, extreme and incompetent. YouGov’s latest polling makes grim reading. The proportion of Britons considering voting Reform has fallen six points over the past year to 24%, while those naming it as their main voting intention has dropped five points to 16%. Farage’s net favourability has deteriorated from -27 last summer to -44, while his rating for his performance as Reform leader has crashed from +18 to -33. Just 19% now regard him as a prime minister in waiting. The decline has unfolded alongside months of damaging scandal. Farage has faced continuing scrutiny over the £5 million gift he received from billionaire Reform donor Christopher Harborne. The Metropolitan Police is separately investigating £500,000 in donations to Reform, with two people interviewed under caution and no arrests made. Richard Tice is also currently under investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards over an alleged failure to declare an interest. Meanwhile, the party that insists it is ready to govern has repeatedly demonstrated how badly it handles disagreement within its own ranks. Tim Montgomerie was suspended after publicly criticising Farage and Zia Yusuf, exposing tensions that had already been simmering around Yusuf’s increasingly aggressive interventions. Reform’s internal arguments have spilled into public view precisely when it has been trying to convince voters that it possesses the discipline required for government. The public appears to be drawing its own conclusions. Around six in ten Britons now describe Reform as untrustworthy, prejudiced or extreme, while 56% consider it incompetent. The most common words volunteered to describe Farage himself are “racist” and “liar”. Reform’s rise relied heavily on Farage persuading voters that anger could substitute for competence. After the money controversies, the internal warfare and the accumulating questions over judgement, that proposition is beginning to buckle. The decline is becoming harder to dismiss because the credibility underneath it is disappearing too.