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Nigel Farage Falls To Lowest Approval Rating Since Election

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Nigel Farage’s approval rating has plummeted to its lowest level since the 2024 general election, according to a new poll.

More in Common put the Reform UK leader on -32, which is a drop of approximately 10 points in just a fortnight.

It follows a wider trend suggesting the right-wing party is declining in popularity despite having led in the opinion polls for more than a year.

The think tank also found new prime minister Andy Burnham is now at +19 after a two-week policy blitz.

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That rating is higher than the +11 Keir Starmer achieved just after he was voted into office in July 2024 – though he dropped to -49 late last year.

Meanwhile, the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is on 0 while her Lib Dem counterpart Ed Davey sits at -11.

Green leader Zack Polanski is on -24, having taken a sharp downward turn in recent weeks.

More in Common’s UK director Luke Tryl wrote on X: “We pointed out last week Burnham’s positives were in part because he had higher unknowns.

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“That changed this week as the number of neither/don’t know declined and he also now has highest gross approval.

“For Reform what may worry Farage is less the rise in disapproval, he’s always been polarising and more the decline in raw approval, suggesting some previous fans wavering.”

The researchers also reported earlier this week that Reform had lost its 16-month lead in the polls.

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It put Labour on 28%, up four percentage points from last week, while Farage’s party was put on 24%, having lost two points.

YouGov, meanwhile, put the two parties neck-and-neck on 22% on Monday, with Reform losing one percentage point and Labour gaining one.

More in Common is not the only organisation noticing a decline in support for Reform.

Survation found this week that Labour were now in the lead in the opinion polls on 26% – up one point from last week – while Reform lags slightly behind on 24%, having lost two points.

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That is the first time the governing party has taken the lead in a Survation poll since May 2025, with their highest vote share in over a year.

Polling by YouGov from last week found that just 22% of British voters now have a favourable opinion of the Reform UK leader.

That is the lowest figure recorded by the pollsters’ approval rating tracker since 2020.

At the same time, more than two-thirds of the country (68%) now view Farage negatively, including 56% who see him very unfavourably.

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His net approval rating of minus 46, which is the joint-lowest ever recorded for him by YouGov is even worse than the minus 41 recorded for Boris Johnson after partygate and Keir Starmer’s minus 45 when he resigned as PM.

Farage is facing intense scrutiny after failing to declare a £5 million gift from crypto-billionaire Christopher Harborne when he became an MP for Clacton.

The Reform leader has insisted he has not broken any rules and is the victim of a “witch-hunt”, but is being investigated by parliament’s standards watchdog.

In a dramatic move earlier this month, he resigned as the MP for Clacton to trigger a “people versus the establishment” by-election, which will be held on August 13.

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However, none of the main parties are putting up candidates, meaning his main rival is Count Binface.

Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

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