Farage Says Reform on Cusp of ‘Historic Victory’ in England Elections

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said that his party may secure a “historic” victory in the upcoming local elections as multiple polls put the party in pole position, a week ahead of voters heading to the ballot box.

The May 1st elections in England will be decided by turnout, Nigel Farage has stated, as his upstart populist Reform UK party has surged to the top of the polls.

A survey conducted this week by YouGov saw Reform rise by two points over last week to lead the field at 25 per cent. Meanwhile, both Westminster establishment parties saw their support decline, with the governing left-wing Labour Party falling to 23 per cent, and the cratering Conservatives dropping to 20 per cent.

A separate poll from More in Common also pegged Reform at 25 per cent, the highest level for the Farage-led party ever recorded by the pollster. The survey found Labour and the Tories were tied at 23 per cent.

In a message posted on social media on Wednesday evening, Mr Farage said: “We are topping the national polls, this is all about turnout. If people go out in these elections on May the first and vote Reform, I tell you what, we are going to do something truly historic.

“And it will be a major step towards winning the next general election. So please get out there and do it.”

The elections — the first time voters nationwide will have a chance to give a verdict on the performance of the Labour Party since last year’s general election — will take place in 23 councils across England, with 1,641 seats up for grabs. Six mayoral elections will also be held on the same day.

They have been a significant focus of Reform as it attempts to build an established national party infrastructure, a task that eluded previous parties led by Farage, such as UKIP and the Brexit Party. The party hopes that opening up local offices and taking control of council seats will provide a base from which it can challenge the 2029 general election.

Speaking from the campaign trail, Mr Farage said that he believes he currently has a “35 to 45 per cent” chance of becoming Britain’s next prime minister.

Key to the party’s strategy has been to peel off disaffected voters from both the Conservatives and the Labour Party, both of which have failed to deliver on critical issues such as limiting immigration and turning around the economy.

Much like the MAGA movement in the United States, Reform has set its sights on the issues facing the working-class, particularly in the so-called Red Wall areas of the country, which traditionally have supported Labour but backed Brexit in the 2016 referendum and have increasingly been disregarded by the governing leftist party as it has become more urban and elitist in its outlook.

Breaking with his free-market Thatcherite roots, Farage led the call this month for the nationalisation of British Steel to protect union workers after its Chinese owners attempted to permanently shut down the UK’s last major steelworks plant in Scunthorpe. Reform has also been at the forefront in pushing back against planned inheritance tax raids on British farmers by the leftist Labour government.