Farage rages after poll puts Reform 13 points behind Labour

Nigel Farage is furious about a poll produced by veteran pollster Lord Ashcroft, which puts Reform in third place, 13 points behind Labour and eight points behind the Tories.

Farage called Ashcroft’s poll for the Daily Mail “totally dishonest” and sought to undermine his polling, saying he was a “Tory donor who isn’t even a member of the British Polling Council”. 

In a post on X reacting to the poll, Farage added: “He had us at 21% in May and we achieved 28% – his polling has been proven as bogus time and time again.”

The poll puts Labour on 31%, the Conservatives on 26% and Reform UK trailing behind in third place on 18%. 

Farage has been pictured with Michael Ashcroft multiple times, including at a recent launch of Ashcroft’s biography about Farage, called “The Farage Factor”. 

When Farage was leader of UKIP, Farage described Lord Ashcroft Polls as “the only company that have consistently got UKIP right”. 

Farage was also keen to share Ashcroft’s polling when the pollster predicted that UKIP was on track to win in Thurrock at the 2015 election.

The Conservative candidate, Jackie Doyle-Price ended up winning the seat.

Nevertheless, Farage was more than happy to share Ashcroft’s polling when it indicated success for his party. 

In September last year, a Lord Ashcroft Polls survey put Reform on 27 points, Labour on 22% and the Conservatives on 19%.

But with Reform sliding in recent polls amid successive scandals including the undeclared £5 million donation Farage received from Christopher Harborne, the Reform leader has turned his fire on a pollster whose findings he was once keen to promote. 

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward