Public sentiment is largely critical of the current political landscape, particularly regarding Labour's leadership and policies. There is a strong demand for reforms driven by perceived corruption, ineffective governance, and disenchantment with existing political parties. Commenters express a desire for greater accountability, transparency, and representation of working-class interests. Overall, there is urgent and widespread frustration with the political system, alongside a yearning for genuine change.

Labour Party

Reform UK

Conservative Party

[deleted]


People are tired of the same old politics and want a change, no matter where it comes from.

FlirtyFawnChic

Everything around is burning. People are desperate for a solution

Aware_Newspaper326

Because there is a wider range of party options, Brits can be a lot more fickle rather than staying staunchly with one party. Those on the right who have ditched the Tory party, disillusioned, the other previous far right parties like UKIP, BNP etc are totally dead so Reform is who they can go to for a protest vote and a simplistic answer to their problems. It is just Nigel Farage and any band of grifter who wants to attach to it.

terryjuicelawson

the main right wing party collapsed after banging on about immigration for a decade without any effective change in policy.


conservative media companies write a lot of stories about immigration.


interest groups in the two superpowers are filling the internet with anti-immigration propaganda because its a wedge issue thats easily exploited.

Happy_Little_Fish

The usual popular parties have become a bunch of wet lettuce. And people are noticing. Reform party is fresher lettuce but covered in bugs. 🐛

EternallySickened

They are really popular because the main policy of their leader, leaving the EU, has given them everything they could ever have wished for...(I assume).

MrMrsPotts

Because there are a lot of stupid people.

At the last election, the traditional right-wing party of the Conservatives had been in power since 2010. Due to a series of scandals, massive economic fails, corruption and other, similar matters, they had lost a massive amount of credibility and support, and badly run the UK down. Their collapse left a vacancy on the right that was filled by Reform, though enough residual support remained for them to be effectively fighting over the same votes, resulting in very few Reform MPs being elected.

Exploiting this, the centre-left Labour party won a massive landslide victory at the general election in July of 2024. Those that have a brain can realise that, whether you agree with their policies or not, it would be impossible for them to reverse 14 years of mismanagement and decline in less than a year. However, Reform relies on the support of those lacking intelligence and reasonableness, and a lot of those who were unhappy with the state of the country at the time of the last election are still unhappy.

Reform, aided by a predominantly right-wing media environment, promotes simplistic ideas that generally come down to pointing at a minority (or some different group that can be othered) and going "blame them for everything you don't like". The sort of stupid people that fall for this are unable to see the lack of causal connection, and don't care that Reform's "policies" are generally outright stupid, illegal or economically disastrous if they were ever enacted. Reform are also being aided by the continuing struggles of the Conservatives, who have saddled themselves with a new, inept leader, and are not presenting a compelling or credible right-wing alternative.

Nuclear_Geek

You mean the Reform party led by Preston Manning in Canada?

shoresy99

They're a protest vote. They're the "not one of the same old parties" option.

Most people only really pay attention to politics around election time. They don't really know much about Reform beyond them being not one of the usual parties and "reform" sounding like a good idea.

TrivialBanal

Voter frustration, on point messaging, and, most importantly, rules that were more friendly to third party candidates at that time.

Note that after Perot got into the debates, the polling threshold needed to get into the debates was increased so that it could not happen again.

The frustration certainly still exists, but the rules changes have made it harder for third parties to get traction in order to represent that frustration. So, many people are not wholly satisfied with the existing two options, but feel trapped into pursuing one.

Edit: reading other comments, it seems this is about British politics, whereas my comment was specific to the US Reform Party. Disregard if you are looking for British stuff.

TheAzureMage

1. Honeymoon over: After the election, a number of voters who basically vote against who's in charge went from Labour to Conservative now that Labour's in charge.

2. Right to far-right shift: If you look at the poll charts since November or so, Reform and Conservative are basically in an inverse relationship. As conservative goes down, reform goes up, and vice versa. This suggests that Conservative voters are expressing support for Reform instead. 

If it's like France or the United States, and probably Canada soon enough, essentially the right-wing is being swept away by the far-right.  Will it last or not? I don't know. The Conservative party is 190 years old, but parties do come and go in the UK

FourteenBuckets

CheeseburgerBrown

For far too long there have only been two realistic choices at the higher levels of American politics. That is a shit untenable situation. I vote Democrat, but only because I’m pragmatic enough to see there’s no real choice. Except in the 2016 primary when I was like Oh thank God here’s a guy who might break that mould. Don’t care if he’s almost 80. Don’t care that he’s kinda kooky. Idgaf. He’s not part of the two party cookie cutter. Then various points, including like 99% of sitting Democrats, showed that Yeah that’s not happening we’re keeping this broken train rolling along. So here we are.

Alternative_Rent9307

Both parties are the same thing. People are fed up. the UK has been stagnant since the 09 crash pretty much.

It may also be unpopular to say, but a big chunk of British people are also sick of mass immigration and neither Labor nor the Tories do anything about it. Ignoring the problem won't make it go away. Reform may be a bad party with bad policies, but they at least talk about the problems a lot of people are thinking about.

FunOptimal7980

Worried_Percentage12

Because people remembered for a brief moment that they have a right to vote for someone who isn't a democrat or republican

edit: wrong reform party but my point still stands. 

JPGoure

Snapshot of _Reform would be largest party if general election held today_ :

An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&amp;url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/reform-party-mrp-poll-latest-tcb0qtnxn?utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=Reddit#Echobox=1750914787)  or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&amp;url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/reform-party-mrp-poll-latest-tcb0qtnxn?utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=Reddit#Echobox=1750914787)         


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&gt; Reform UK would become Britain’s largest political party if an election were held today

This is gonna be a story every week until GE 2029

DamascusNuked

I’m really doing readers a disservice here by stating the obvious but it’s not likely to be held until 2029.

Henriidm

It would help if Starmer weren’t just an empty suit with zero charisma who doesn’t clearly stand for anything.

Love him or hate him, but at least with Corbyn you knew exactly what he stood for and he had charisma. The same can be said about Farage, he’s charismatic, and it’s obvious what he stands for.

Starmer, like a lot of centrists frankly, just lacks any sort of political willpower. He just comes across as a guy that’s going with the motions, any way the wind blows. The British people want a PM who’s decisive and will take action.

I’m no Farage fan, not at all, but I can see why people fall for his con.

FatFarter69

Labour will never poll well simply because not many people voted for them in the first place (remember they got less votes than Corbyn did in 2019), and now they are pissing people off.

But for how long? They like a good schism and their recent councillors are dropping like flies.

The question is, what does the Reform atom decay into?

twistedLucidity

So.... there won't be an election today. So this is mostly meaningless.

f1boogie

Not the usual poll, this was the largest poll since the election, of 11,000 people and these YouGov MRP polls have an excellent record in terms of predicting outcomes.

Please please WAKE UP if you're still one of those people sticking your head in the sand and saying Reform being the largest party at the next election won't happen. Your complacency is the biggest reason there is now a significant chance it will happen.

Terrible-Group-9602

BoxingFan88

I get why polls are reported on, people are interested and it drives engagement but there is zero reason to give these polls any weight. In between elections people aren't thinking about who they'll vote for, they're showing their displeasure at the government or talking up fringe ideas. Even if an election was called tomorrow this poll wouldn't be reflective of how people would actually vote. Disgruntled labour voters would hold their noses and vote for Starmer and some of the people who say they'll vote for Farage may well not.

We should wait until we're in an election cycle before we give than more than a cursory appraisal.

Subtleiaint

This is just part of the press plan to have reform when

You make it normal hearing how reform are going to win east for 4 years then in 4 years everyone will either vote reform or not bother because they have been brainwashed to accept reform are going to win

Shniper

Yeah and I'd be a millionaire if someone gave me £1m

daniluvsuall

Is there any viable path for the people to force an early election? It’s crazy to think another 4 years of a party who only has support of 20% of the population.

Zealousideal_Hand751

Reform UK would become Britain’s largest political party if an election were held today, putting Nigel Farage in pole position to become Britain’s next prime minister, a major survey suggests.

YouGov’s first MRP poll since Labour’s landslide election victory last year reveals the extent of Sir Keir Starmer’s fall from grace and suggests the party would lose 233 of the 412 seats it won.

Reform, meanwhile, is on track to have 271 new MPs, up from the five that it has now, which would make it the largest party in a hung parliament

TimesandSundayTimes

Then deals would be made, things would be done to keep them out.


You know democracy?

Livid_Interest184

Is labours real plan to let as many migrants in as possible and let them vote? 

Speed up the process? We are heading the way of South Africa.

No_Scale_8018

Make it a different color man, i cant tell where it is cause im colorblind

stanthefax

AOC and Trump created both wings in both of political ends within the Reform Party.

PremierDonya_Tesoro

Reform Party would tactical alliance in state basis either the GOP and the Dems.

I don't think Reform wins TN-01 or TN-02 sadly

777words

I don't think they'd do that well in Utah. Probably switch Utah with Colorado.

I wonder what they'd even look like had they survived. I don't think Perot's strategy of "ignore social issues and only talk about trade and the deficit" could have survived the 90s. Maybe they could be the anti-war voice in the 2000's but that's just swapping one protest vote for another. And protest vote parties never last more than one or two cycles before they're adopted by one of the main parties or the issue recedes along with the party.

I feel like they were always doomed to fall off either the left or right wing cliffs and get their base swallowed back into the two party system.

Interesting_Cup_3514

I wonder if Trump stays apart of the Reform party in this (based) timeline

Lerightlibertarian

justaheatattack

Often local elections are non-partisan. My village's council has three blocs (technically non-partisan) among the 7 members at the moment.

Also "party" is a bit looser in an American context, where there's no three-line whip or anything similar and candidates are selected by primary elections, not executive committees. People aren't really focused on dismantling the power of parties that are pretty weak to begin with. Instead people who support the green party, libertarians, etc, infiltrate one of the two parties. Ron Paul who was a Republican member of congress until he was the Libertarian candidate for president, and then ran for congress again as a Republican after that (Justin Amash and Thomas Massie are more recent examples of Libertarians who were temporary Republicans for convenience). Kyrsten Sinema was a green party activist until became a Democrat to run for congress. There are several Democratic members of congress today who are also members of the Democratic Socialists of America.

erin_burr

Where I’m from, it’s entrenched.  There are usually zero Democratic candidates running for local offices and the truly decisive local election is the Republican primary.  This is because of both social and fiscal issues.

DownhomeinGeorgia

In a lot of places that I've lived, city and county level government positions are non-partisan.

Lucky-Hunter-Dude

In my area, county and state races, the conservative party often runs unopposed. it's not worth it for the liberal party to even bother.

HarveyMushman72

It goes far beyond just politics. The  two-party system has birthed a tribalistic division that has permeated almost every aspect of our society, and it's out of control.

DickSugar80

Non partisan technically because people want to hide their affiliations more than anything. “Non partisan” and “independent” are code for embarrassed conservative where I live.

There was a local business guy in my town who was a 20 point front runner for mayor and wound up losing by 40 points once it came out he used to work for the state Republican Party for several years. 

He lied and kept saying he had always been an independent.

Oceanbreeze871

It depends a bit.  Some municipalities have ranked choice voting.  Some municipalities and even states to a lesser extent only have one party that even has a shot so the real action is in the primary.  

The reason the US has a two party system is we use first past the post voting and two parties that are effectively both coalitions.

ScalesOfAnubis19

I voted Labour, and mostly have my entire life, I'll be voting tactically, whatever helps keep Reform out of power.

JoeThrilling

I'm entirely unsurprised since over half of Labour's 2024 vote most likely fell into the "not the Tories" category rather than traditional Labour voters. If that was their mindset, it's also safe to assume those same voters aren't too enthused with some of his policies since the election and will be looking elsewhere for the next round.

pppppppppppppppppd

If they'd stop trying to chase flighty right-wing voters and pay more attention to their core centre-left constituency, they might do better.

FelisCantabrigiensis

Look the problem is pretty simple. Starmer got voted in because people were tired of austerity and culture wars. They wanted the change he promised.

Rather than doing anything, he has been responsable for even more cuts to social spending and has trown trans people under the bus

The Greens and Libdems exploding in popularity alongside Reform is hardly a surprise at this point

gar1848

Has anyone else noticed that we now talk like there's an election every year?

Labour have four more years to go, anyone who wants them out are just going to have to sit on their hands until then.

CosmicBonobo

Yeah and if they do, it will split the vote and put Farage in Number 10 in a landslide.  The 20,000 ft view here is that Starmer's Labour would rather have that than introduce proportional representation.  (Just as they preferred a Tory government to a Corbyn premiership - their own leader at the time.) "Democracy."

Any-Swing-3518

I *wish* the Greens were trying a bit harder. This is your chance! Make some noise! Everyone hates Kier!

MondeyMondey

Tactual voting in 2024 was MASSIVE - the exit poll pointed to a large number of Lib Dem and Green voters voting Labour in order to stop the Tories. It’s perhaps not surprising many then now say they’d vote someone else 

The missing fact is that manh if those looking elsewhere will still vote Labour if it’s needed tactically

RandomSculler

And 0% of Reforms 2025 vote is considering switching to Labour

Memes_Haram

Labour are trying too hard to appeal to the right, and therefore losing more reliable voters on the left

Sushiv_

They’ll try frightening people like me with guff about splitting the vote and letting Reform in, but I don’t give a toss. If they want my vote they’ll have to earn it by actually offering policies I want. As it is I can’t say I particularly approve of freezing pensioners and tipping disabled people out of their wheelchairs. 

GylfiEinarsson

Hey turns out you screw over the LGBTQ community to chase after racists there are consequences.. who knew!

martzgregpaul

I’m sorry but to anyone actually paying attention it’s painfully obvious that Starmer and McSweeney’s Labour Party do not care about electoral success. 

People keep banging on about them “trying to appeal to the right” but the Party have more detailed data analysis than the public do and even we can see that this isn’t a viable strategy. 

They’re implementing policies that we know and they know aren’t politically advantageous. It’s ideological for them rather than strategic. They have no intention of being a 2 term government, they did their job in sabotaging the left of the party and are now just treading water until they can all fuck back off to corporate lobbying positions as a reward for making a lot of rich people very rich.

GianfrancoZoey

What an extremely hollow mandate this government lives on. I never thought a 400+ seat majority could be described as pathetic, but it really is, Starmer will be lucky if Labour even stay in at the next GE.

Fact is Labour's base is a lot more fractured than he thinks, but they still turned up for the party at the GE, even if holding their nose from his leadership. At the very least he could have appealed to these people, and I've not seen him even try.

Instead he's trying to court the Tories and Reform voters, people who wouldn't vote for Kier Starmer even if he firebombed a migrant hotel himself.

What a cowardly government we have.

TheLimeyLemmon

Honestly the left wingers in the comments who *still* think that mass immigration isn't the most fundamental issue to address before the next election is insanity

What's even more insane is the same people who presumably *must know* that mass immigration is the preferred state of affairs for the ultra wealthy, think they're somehow sticking it to the wealthy by...continuing the policy that clearly favours the wealthy?

RatioFinal4287

I voted labour, I'll switch to the Lib dems next election

Greekgeek2000

Not surprised but the Greens are not the progressive party people think they are. They are NIMBYs and Conservation with a Small ‘c’

Kumb

I am in Liz Kendall's constituency, I'm not going to vote for her if she stands for election again,  after she cut disability benefits. I'm not disabled myself, but I know people who are.

OkFan7121

Well it's hardly surprising, is it?

I didn't vote for them in the last election, and I'm unlikely to do so in the next. If they want my vote, they can't skate by on "Well at least we're not Reform or the Tories!" while shifting further and further to the right, making them functionally identical to Reform and the Tories. They're not going to win Reform seats, so they can fuck off trying.

I don't vote for the tories, and it doesn't matter to me whether they're wearing red rosettes, blue ones, or light blue ones.

Morganx27

I'll be going Green or Lib Dem too. The shift that came after the Corbyn failure seemingly has pushed the Labour party into grounds of being more conservative than the conservative party itself. Staking your claim on government by demonizing disabled people is one terrible way to make a start.

kieranhorner

This Labour government is further to right than David Cameron's - they lost me as a voter.

Empty-Establishment9

Again, look at the polling - it had Labour losing the seat by miles. The fact they didn’t points to reform struggling to turn polling into actual voting, and facing tactical voting positioned to stop them 

If they need 9 point margin to barely win a seat then they’re really going to struggle in seats with smaller leads or where polling puts them behind 

 [https://lordashcroftpolls.com/2025/03/runcorn-by-election-reform-uk-in-pole-position/](https://lordashcroftpolls.com/2025/03/runcorn-by-election-reform-uk-in-pole-position/)

Irrespective of Labour's actions, the British media have been vehemently against Labour and Starmer since they were elected. This government has made many positive moves, such as closing tax loopholes, e.g., inheritance tax and for private schools, starting the renationalisation of energy and railway, and ending strikes, and they are underway with reforming the NHS. The trade deals with India and the USA seem good for Britain, and our relationship with the EU appears strong. Even the announcements on immigration is good for working-class people, and looks to force businesses to train and pay decent wages instead of slashing cuts by hiring "cheap labour" from abroad.

If you follow the media narrative, you would see the situation even worse (not a surprise given 80% of our media outlets are right wing and most social media platforms are even worse). I don't doubt there are issues with some of their policies, but the people voted for 14 years of Tory austerity before this. After Brexit, Boris and Liz Truss, comparitvely I think what they are doing is good but they are starting from a low point and it will take time to see the benefits. I fear by the time things do seem to make a difference we will get a Farage government. I think they're just at the wrong place at the wrong time. It's a losing battle regardless of what they do.

SnooMaps5367

Elected on not being the Tories. 

All they seem to have left is hoping people vote for them not being Reform. 

The political centre is intellectually bankrupt and completely void of ideas. 

And I really don’t think the ideas need to be particularly great, but we are a year in and it’s being optics disasters (sticking it to pensioners, the disabled and farmers), and dogwhistling to the far right by slyly referencing Enoch Powell then saying it was an accident, as if a bunch of politics wonks in a room haven’t read that speech. 

Just do a few things that make people’s lives better, so they think “oh, they made my life better, I quite like that”.  It’s not cheating. It’s how politics works. 

Starmer’s project looks burned. Guy is out of his depth and out of ideas. 

Labour may try to pivot to Raynor, who is at least somewhat politically savvy, but the question of how different it will be depends on whether she can stand up to the power brokers behind the Labour Together project, and if they take her down with their usual thousand cuts should she choose to. 

FriendshipForAll

I'm sick of voting tactically. Im a millennial and all i've ever been able to do is vote Labour as that's the leftmost party that's been on offer, and the mainstream is more right than ever before. 

Why is Labour competing with Reform? People who are thinking about Reform will literally never vote for Labour - if anything they'll vote for the Tories nearer the time of election (when Kemi will be undoubtedly replaced by someone with higher core Tory voter base appeal). Labour needs to stick to the centre left, and bring together the different factions of the party - the student activists, the workers, and other folks who are socially progressive (even if they are less concerned with workers rights). Only by uniting the Corbynites, the Brownites and the Blairites, can you get a competent organisation that remotely resembles a successful left

soulbroth3r

People have figured him out. He's a slimy weasel with no real values, morals, or conviction. He will say and do whatever he thinks will earn him the most votes.

rye_domaine

Not really a surprise. As much as the modern Labour supporters would like to pretend it's because Starmer hasn't managed to fix 15 years of Tory mismanagement in less than a year, the reality is the current government was voted in on the second lowest turnout in a century and the lowest vote share of any majority party on record, against an incredibly unpopular Tory government.

They've never been popular, they were never going to have much of a honeymoon period.

The Tories are a huge mess so perhaps they'll still win the next election (which is of course long enough away that current polls are pretty meaningless), but I don't think they really have a strong "core" support base.

threep03k64

Piss your core off to appeal to refuck voters who aren’t interested anyway. Great strategy Keir

enola83

Not surprising. There's a lot of people who voted Labour to prevent splitting the vote and allowing the Tories to sneak back in. 

Labour have shown too much "Red Tory" decision making to win people over permanently.

JetBrink

Weird, it’s almost as if abandoning any and all efforts to do what socially liberal voters in your base would want to cynically chase social conservative votes is bad politics.

TVPaulD

Ah yes greens, the party who wanted to scrap our nuclear deterrent - the left have there priorities all wrong, rather protect trans rights then our own country 😂

dillydally1144

I voted Lib Dem but I would’ve voted Labour if it was going to be closer. Going forward it’ll be whatever keeps reform out of power. Tbh I would love for a left wing party who cares about immigration but that feels like a pipe dream

W35TH4M

Ah yes I definitely believe that when push comes to shove and it's labour or reform all of those people will stick to their guns

Honestly my hope is the vote is so split no one gets absolute power. We’ve seen what that does in America right now. Coalition of all these bastards or bust.

SixRoundsTilDeath

County Durham used to be a Labour heartland and it’s looking more Reform every day

this country is fucked and in its death throes. our current welfare state is a financial black hole (keeping it as it is suicide, and people wonder why it’s being cut in the slightest of ways by this government). we have no real investment or research, we spaffed away a decade of the lowest interest rates in history, and covid was the death blow. 

no party will (or be able to) address this (pensions and housing especially) until it explodes. i don’t see a way out that doesn’t result in sovereign default and mass overhaul of our parliamentary system. Personally im trying to get myself into a position to emigrate.

pmmecabbage

So, for 2029, Labour votes will be split between three parties and 25% to Reform, while the right-wing unify and vote for Reform? Leftists do realize they're shooting themselves in the foot, right?

ReddyBlueBlue

I am a labour supporter but I have recently found out I am more of a Union supporter than the rest of the party.

I will be voting tactically against reform.

SufficientWarthog846

I’ve spoiled my ballots for Labour every election since Starmer however with the recent reform shift I’m probably going to have to tactically vote.

GiveUsRobinHood

As a Labour voter why would you vote Labour in its current form? They're Cameron Tory politics using the same fiscal 'responsibility' and know actual vision nor (after 14 years of prep) a clear plan on what needs to change. Starmer needs to return to labours roots and focus on the people not lobbyists and donors.

Ambitious-Top3394

Id never vote for greens as i value my securty and my familys they want to get rid of our nuclear deterrent at a time when the world is on the brink which makes no sense at all

Remarkable_Misty

They should have voted for Lib Dem and Greens in 2024 when they had the chance.

DomusCircumspectis

I’ll vote what is needed to keep reform out of power but I’m not impressed with labour

Turbulent-Grade-3559

The problem with labour is that they don't represent the actual workers any more.

You have one half of the labour party which is just the "same as usual" Tories in a different coloured tie. 

You have the other half of the party that are just student activists who care more about trans and Palestine (not that we shouldn't care about these things) than they do about British workers. Any policy is basically just "nationalise everything and have it as a state funded benefit"

We have no party (at least not one with a significant following) that is saying "higher wages and lower cost of living".

Even Gary Stevenson (who I like BTW) is kind of missing the point by having his main goal as "tax the rich". We tax the rich and tax the wealthy by forcing normal people's wages up. Whose pocket does it come out of if our wages go up? The wealthy and the shareholders. So much of our welfare budget is spent on people who work. In my eyes that's tax payer money subsidising low wages. Government hand outs aren't for the benefit of us. They are for the benefit of employers. 

I don't see any political parties or influencers etc having wages as a primary concern but it's the primary concern of the average Brit. 

A labour party that was set up to represent workers is doing an abysmal job (including the left wing element of the party)

greylord123

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