The Greens are polling at 50% among 16-24-year-olds, miles ahead of Reform's 8%
Nigel Farage was quizzed on the low levels of support for Reform UK among young people compared to the Greens at a press conference yesterday.
A Politics UK reporter asked Farage if he was worried about Reform becoming “the party of the middle aged and old”.
A new YouGov poll has found that the Green Party commands huge support among 18-24-year-olds, with it polling on 46%. Meanwhile, Reform is polling at just 8% in the same age group.
The journalist pointed out that “Zack Polanski’s polling among 16-24-year-olds has shot up”to 51%, while Reform’s has petered off to around 8%”.
He then asked: “Do you worry Reform is becoming the party of the middle aged and old and that not having youth on your side could significantly harm your party’s prospects come the time of the next general election?”.
Farage looked taken aback by the question, and then denied the polling figures in his response: “I don’t recognise those figures at all.”
“The last few times I’ve looked at numbers, the number of 16-18-year-olds that would vote Reform was in the middle high 20s, almost reflective of our percentage across the whole country,” the Reform leader added.
Farage then changed the subject to talking about how he’d had a turnout of 950 people at an event in Hull two nights ago.
“I wonder whether, you know, Keir Starmer would get a turnout like that in Hull or whether Kemi Badenoch would or whether Ed Davey would,” he said.
Farage then said: “What Polanski is doing is tapping into a sort of university student, half-indoctrinated youth who find Marxism very appealing”.
Responding to Farage’s comments, Polanski said: “Across the country people are seeing through Nigel Farage.
“He would have dragged us into this illegal and unpopular war – all our bills would be going up even further under Reform.
“Whether it’s the North East or London – more and more people are supporting the Green Party.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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