Reform UK's Success Hinges On Surpassing National Polling At Local Elections

A successful night at the local elections for Reform UK will be achieving "well above 15 per cent" in the areas they are standing, as the insurgent right wing party threatens to eat into the Tory vote.

Reform leader Richard Tice hosted a press conference in Westminster on Monday with the backdrop declaring “Britain Needs Reform”. Tice claimed that the UK was “completely and utterly broken” and committed to a series of policies to revitalise the economy and health service, including a tax relief for private healthcare and scrapping Net Zero to bolster NHS spending.

The Reform leader boasted that the party was climbing in the opinion polls and managing to attract disgruntled voters from both the Conservatives and Labour, who he accused of betraying the “working class”.

“We are now actually polling the highest amongst Brexiteers across the whole of the UK. We're above the Tories in the North, equal in the Midlands, so we're making huge strides," Tice said. 

“Why you might ask? Well, it’s actually pretty clear. The truth is country is completely and utterly broken.”

YouGov's most recent Westminster voter intention polling predicted that Reform would win 16 per cent of the vote if the general election was held tomorrow, with the Conservative Party at 20 per cent and Labour at 43 percent. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak must call a general election before the end of the year. While this would not necessarily award Reform any parliamentary seats, it is believed that the split of the right wing vote between the Tories and Reform could be a boost for Labour. If such a result was replicated on polling day, Labour would end up with more than 400 seats compared to the Tories’ 155 – which would be the worst in the party’s history.

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