A majority of leftwing and centrist voters are willing to lend their vote to rival parties at the next election if it keeps Reform from winning seats, a new poll revealed today.
In every scenario pitched by YouGov where a constituency vote is a straight fight between Reform and one of the other four main parties, tactical voting blocked Farage’s outfit from winning.
Similarly, the Tories only victory was against Reform, with voters suggesting they would even narrowly choose Labour over them.
Almost six-in-10 Lib Dem and Green voters (57 per cent and 58 per cent) are prepared to vote for Labour to prevent Nigel Farage‘s party from taking their local seat, YouGov found.
Nearly three quarters of Lib Dems (73 per cent) would switch to the Greens, and 67 per cent of Greens would go the other way.
And even more Labour voters are prepared to return the favour to the smaller parties, with 77 per cent ready to back Ed Davey‘s outfit and 76 per cent ready to back Zack Polanski’s Greens if they are best placed to beat Reform.
Almost a third (30 per cent) of Labour voters are also prepared to hold their noses and vote Conservative if it means preventing a Reform candidate from becoming their MP.
The poll shows the level of polarisation between right and left in UK politics and adds fuel to the Mail’s Unite the Right campaign urging Reform and the Tories to join forces at the next election to get Labour out of power.
In every scenario pitched to voters where the seat is a straight fight between Reform and one of the other four main parties, tactical voting blocked Farage’s party from winning.
In contrast to the left-wing enthusiasm for tactical voting, fewer than half of Reform voters would back the Tories if they were up against Labour (44 per cent), the Lib Dems (45 per cent) or the Greens (43 per cent).
Even fewer Tory voters were prepared to vote tactically for Reform, with 41 per cent backing them against Labour, 37 per cent against the Lib Dems and 32 per cent against the Greens.
However it came as Reform Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick – a former Conservative minister, again criticised his former party.
Launching Reform’s economic plans he said that recent PM’s including Conservative ones, had been ‘defeatist’ in their outlook.
In his first speech in charge of Reform’s economic policy, Mr Jenrick said he wanted to ‘defuse the benefits bomb set to bankrupt Britain’.
The two-child cap on receiving child benefits, eased by Sir Keir Starmer last year would be restored, in a reversal of Nigel Farage‘s previous support for ending it.
At the same time those who want the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) on mental health grounds would be forced to provide a clinical diagnosis instead of diagnosing themselves.
Those with ‘mild anxiety, depression and similar conditions’ would be barred from receiving cash and steered towards work, he said.
But in reply Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake said: ‘One week Nigel Farage says Robert Jenrick is a fraud, next week he’s Reform’s economic guru. You cannot trust a word he says.
‘Reform’s economic policy changes by the week. Just two weeks ago, Rob Jenrick voted to lift the two-child benefit cap. Today he claims he would reinstate it. They make even Keir Starmer look consistent.’
