Farage cries foul after Reform slips to a tie with the Tories

LONDON — Nigel Farage is crying foul as pollsters place his struggling Reform UK behind right-wing rivals, the Conservative Party. A combination of scandal and a rejuvenated opposition has seen Reform slump to a second-place tie with the Conservatives for much of the last fortnight, according to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls . There are potentially years to run until the next U.K.

general election — and British politics remains volatile. But it represents a steep fall from when Farage was being treated as Britain’s next prime minister and his right-wing outfit spent a year out in first place ahead of the governing Labour Party. It’s a major test of Reform’s claim to be the best-placed right-wing vessel to stop another Labour victory.

So what’s Farage’s answer? He is increasingly trying to remind voters how the Conservatives operated in government — and claiming the polls themselves are bogus. POLITICO spoke to half a dozen figures on Reform’s frontline to try and understand their gripes with the polling.