Nigel Farage’s Reform party has overtaken the Conservatives in a poll for the first time in a national poll.
The Tories were pushed into third in the survey, by pollsters YouGov one point behind Reform on 18 percent to 19 percent
The findings will come as a body blow to Rishi Sunak after a disastrous election campaign and risks triggering panic among many Tory MPs.
As the TV showdown opened he told millions of viewers “we are now the opposition to Labour”.
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The poll found support for Reform had increased by two points to 19 per cent while the Tories were unchanged on 18 per cent.
At the end of the debate, Mr Farage said to Ms Mordaunt: “A vote for you is actually now a vote for Labour.”
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Many Tories now will be wondering if this was a freak poll or if more with Reform going further in front are set to be unleashed over the last three weeks of the election campaign. If Reform builds up a lead of five or more points it could see the world’s oldest political party go into a meltdown and face a wipeout.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The poll results were released minutes before Mr Farage was due to take part in a 7-way debate on ITV, with Conservative cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt, among others.
The words will spark dread among Tory MPs who are seeing their majorities disappearing as their voters turn their backs on Rishi Sunak and defect to Reform.
Many Tory MPs are terrified Reform will put the final nail in their coffin, not by winning their seat but by taking enough votes to hand it to Labour or the Lib Dems.
Reform also claimed they had made history when they unveiled a Party Election Broadcast that turned TV screens black for nearly five minutes – except for the message: “Britain is broken.
At the weekend he was accused of going into hiding after he was forced to make a grovelling apology for leaving the D-Day commemorations early to take part in a TV interview.
Earlier this week Mr Farage pulled out of a high-profile BBC interview as his Reform party faced a row over whether the UK should have appeased Hitler.
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