Well, that’s an eye-opener alright. A YouGov survey published this week has served to gauge how public sentiment is geared towards Nigel Farage, after a turbulent year for Reform saw the party lose their strong poll lead and suffer a number of high-profile setbacks.
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Over 70% of Brits use negative terms to describe Nigel Farage
In a survey presented to thousands of respondents, YouGov told participants to ‘use three words to describe Nigel Farage’. Almost three-quarters of those asked failed to use a single positive word, and more than seven in ten members of the public used at least one negative term.
Both ‘racist’ and ‘liar’ were the most commonly used terms by all participants. Including responses from Reform voters only, ‘patriotic’, ‘honest’, and ‘intelligent’ topped the charts, creating a glaring chasm of opinion between his supporters and his critics.
The data also shows that other unfavourable terms – such as ‘dishonest’, ‘crooked’, and ‘corrupt’ – also made up a significant chunk of responses. YouGov also highlight that one in ten Britons include at least one swearword or insult in their three-word description of Farage, while 7% describe him as ‘evil’ or ‘cruel’.
Graphic: YouGov
Mr Unpopular? Reform – and its leader – have gone down in public estimations
The survey also probed the public on whether Nigel Farage ‘looks like a Prime Minister in waiting’. At the previous benchmark in June, this figure stood at a rather modest 26%. However, it has since fallen a further seven percentage points, with less than one in five respondents seeing him as PM material.
He’s even fallen behind Kemi Badenoch, and the Tory leader has nudged up a point to 26% within the last three months. Amid the various alarm bells ringing for Reform at the moment, perhaps the 27% of Reform voters who also say Nigel ‘is not ready for Number 10’ will be sounding louder than most.
It’s not just Farage who has an image problem, mind. Reform on the whole are treated with a high degree of suspicion from the electorate. When asked how they see the party, a majority of those polled said they were ‘incompetent, extreme, untrustworthy, and prejudiced’. Ouch…