A focus group of people who voted Labour at the last election said they started to warm to Nigel Farage after his controversial appearance on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here.
In 2023, Farage made headlines as he went into the jungle alongside the likes of Tony Bellew, Fred from First Dates and Frankie Dettori.
And, if the fact he finished third hadn’t already got alarm bells ringing for you, then here’s further proof that Farage endeared himself to much of the British public with his appearance on the ITV reality show.
Some members of a panel of voters who backed Labour in last year’s election said that Farage’s trip to the jungle was the moment they started warming to him.
In footage aired by the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, one voter told pollsters More in Common: “I really like Reform.
After admitting they previously “didn’t like” Farage, they added that it was I’m A Celeb “which turned my head for Nigel.”
“I really saw a different side to him and I think he’s very misunderstood,” she said.
Another woman on the panel said that the privately-educated former commodities trader is “more relatable to people, to the average person.”
“Whereas some politicians at the present seem far removed, they’re so in another world, because they are public school educated, they can’t relate to the average person,” she said.
It was at this point that a man on the panel pointed out that Farage did in fact go to private school, unlike Keir Starmer who has much stronger working class roots than the Reform UK leader.
He said: “Nigel Farage was publicly educated, while Keir Starmer is working class but he does present that.
“So Nigel Farage puts on this image of being one of the people, but actually he went to private school.”
This comes as a new poll from More In Common found that if a general election was held now, Reform would claim 290 seats in the House of Commons. This would put them just 36 seats short of a majority.
Meanwhile, Labour would win just 126 seats, the Tories 81 and the Lib Dems 73.
Maybe Sir Keir should consider a stint on Strictly Come Dancing to boost his polling numbers…