Shock new poll confirms Reform lead over Tories despite Farage’s Putin comments

A shock new poll appears to have confirmed that Reform holds a narrow lead over the Tories with just 10 days to go before the general election.

According to the Redfield and Wilton survey of 10,000 voters polled after Nigel Farage made his comments blaming the west for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, his Reform UK are one point ahead of the Tories both unchanged on 19 percent and 18 percent.

The findings have all top three parties unchanged from the survey on 19 and 20 June last week with Labour on top on 42 percent.

Redfield and Wilton’s director of research Philip van Scheltinga told The Independent that the size of the survey meant “it was a very robust sample”.

The findings will come as another blow to Rishi Sunak after he and senior Tory ministers latched on to Farage’s comments as a form of appeasement for Putin.

The Reform UK leader has since doubled down on the comments, which he first made a decade ago in 2014, and insisted that claims he is a supporter of Putin’s is “wrong.”

But the findings suggest that support for Reform is holding firm and comes just hours after a major new MRP poll was released suggesting Labour is heading for a 250 seat majority.

According to Focaldata MRP Labour will win 450 seats, the Tories will be down to a record low of 110, the Lib Dems will get 50, SNP 16, and Reform just one.

But the Redfield and Wilton poll also appears to confirm that Reform is eating into Labour’s votes.

It is their fourth consecutive poll with the Conservatives at 18 percent. Before this streak, their previous low in our polling was 19 percent, which was first achieved under Liz Truss.

Mr van Scheltinga noted: “That is now four polls in a row that are worse than Truss.”

It is also the third consecutive poll with the Conservatives failing to lead Reform. They were tied a week ago, then, Reform was one point ahead in the mid-week poll, and they are again in this one.

Only 35 percent of 2019 Conservative voters say they would vote Conservative again, a new lowest ever in Redfield and Wilton’s polling. The previous low was 37 percent, first reached under Ms Truss and again reached in two polls earlier this election.

Meanwhile, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer leads Sunak by 25 percent for head-to-head on Best prime minister, a new widest ever lead in our polling.