The prospect of Reform UK winning a general election appears to be disappearing after a second poll in a row left them in third place behind the Labour and the Tories.
Just 24 hours after Nigel Farage and his Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick unveiled their alternative Budget to an empty hall, a YouGov poll confirmed that Reform is trailing behind on just 20 per cent.
As Andy Burnham marks 100 days as prime minister, the poll puts Labour on 27 per cent – enough to give them a small majority of eight according to the prediction website Electoral Calculus.
Labour’s vote share is unchanged from last week’s YouGov poll but the party is five points ahead of the Tories, down one to 22 per cent, while Reform are down two points to 20 per cent.
The support for Reform reflects the 20 per cent they also received in an Ipsos poll at the weekend and represents a dramatic collapse in support from a year ago when they were polling at above 30 per cent.
The findings come just a day after Mr Farage was embarrassed when he presented his alternative Budget to an almost empty hall after organisers failed to get invitations out soon enough to party supporters to attend.
Last week he was booed in Plymouth after mistaking the city for another naval base city, Portsmouth. And Mr Farage has been beset by questions over whether one of his key supporters Raheem Kassam is racist for calling Tory leader Kemi Badenoch a “Nigerian scammer”.
This follows a string of scandals which have seen Mr Farage investigated by the parliamentary standards commissioner over a £5m donation from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne, and police investigations into Mr Jenrick and deputy leader Richard Tice.
An investigation by ITV exposed widespread racism in Reform UK, while chief of staff Dan Jukes and policy director James Orr were forced to step down after an Channel 4 sting suggested they were willing to accept an illegal foreign donation.
Mr Farage has made it clear that he hopes that Mr Burnham reopening the Brexit debate will give his party a push.
He told the BBC that Mr Burnham “has no mandate to be in Brussels negotiating any of it”.
He accused Mr Burnham of “absolute dishonesty” and pointed to the prime minister’s comments after the Makerfield by-election where he said the discussions on Britain being outside the EU should not be reopened.
