Nigel Farage’s Reform Party has a worse public reputation as a “racist party” in 2024 than UKIP did in 2015, according to new polling by Focaldata for British Future. Four in ten people think that Reform is a racist party, while just 30% disagree.
This includes a majority of Labour voters (53% of whom agree that Reform is a “racist party” vs 17% disagree) and Liberal Democrat voters (65% to 15%) who agree that “Reform is a racist party”. Conservatives are split by 37% to 34%. Reform voters themselves reject the idea it is a racist party by 86% to 4%.
In a post-election poll of 2,502 GB adults immediately after the general election, Focaldata showed respondents a series of positive and negative statements about the Reform Party and asked if they agree or disagree. The statements were the same as those used in a 2015 British Future poll asking opinions about UKIP for its report ‘The politics of immigration‘ (p21).
In 2015, the idea that UKIP was a racist party was rejected by the public 40% to 43% – so Nigel Farage now has a bigger reputational challenge with his new party on racism than he had with UKIP a decade ago.
The new research also finds that two-thirds of the public (64%) think the Reform party needs to do more about extreme candidates, while only one in ten (9%) disagree.
Six in ten Reform voters (59%) agree that the party “needs to do more to ensure they don’t have candidates with extreme views,” with 16% disagreeing. It is an overwhelming view of Labour, Lib Dem and Conservative voters, with 72% of Conservatives agreeing.
Sunder Katwala, Director of British Future, said:
“After an election campaign marred by scandals over racist candidates and campaigners, often dropped only after media pressure, Nigel Farage has work to do if he is to clean up Reform’s reputation on racism.
“Farage claimed at one point in the campaign to be the ‘effective opposition’ to Labour and did secure 4 million votes, but now heads a party with just five MPs. If he wants Reform to be treated as a mainstream voice – and indeed if he wants to break through and seek broader support – the party will need to be much clearer where it draws the line on prejudice.”
Most voters also think Reform risks bringing prejudice into debates about immigration – by 51% to 20% – but this view, held by most Labour and LibDem voters, and a plurality of Conservative voters, is rejected by those who voted Reform, by 63% to 17%.
Some 45% of voters, however, say that Reform is “Bravely outspoken” and 49% says the party “says things others don’t have the courage to say.”
The new findings underline both the polarising nature of Reform and also how its extreme reputation puts a ceiling on support for the party and its leader Nigel Farage. Half the public (49%) say they would never vote for Reform – as do half of 2024 Tory voters (51%) and four in ten 2019 Tories (40%). Some 37% of 2024 Tories say they would consider it. Only a third of the public (34%) say they would never vote Labour, with 44% saying the same for the Conservatives.
Reform leader Nigel Farage is trusted by 30% of the public when he talks about immigration, but distrusted by 44%, giving a net trust score of -14. That is well behind Prime Minister Keir Starmer, trusted on immigration by 35% and distrusted by 37% (net -2) but ahead of Conservative leader Rishi Sunak (25% trusted on immigration, 51% distrusted, net -26).
;
