Reform UK is polling at its highest level since the 2024 general election as the party prepares for a series of local council elections in May 2026 that will be seen as a critical test of whether Nigel Farage’s populist insurgency can translate its national support into local political power. A YouGov survey published on Monday put Reform at 26% of voting intentions for the local elections, ahead of the Conservatives on 22% and within striking distance of Labour on 29%, in a development that has alarmed both main parties and intensified internal debate about how to respond to the challenge from the right.
The poll comes as Reform prepares to contest over 1,800 council seats across England in elections scheduled for 1 May, its most ambitious local election campaign to date. The party has focused particular resources on councils in the East Midlands, Yorkshire and parts of the North West, areas that voted heavily for Brexit in 2016 and where Reform’s message of immigration control, lower taxes and opposition to net zero policies has resonated with voters who feel abandoned by both Labour and the Conservatives.
Nigel Farage, who leads Reform from the Clacton parliamentary seat he won in 2024, has been conducting a relentless tour of target wards and councils over the past six weeks, drawing substantial crowds at campaign events and generating significant social media engagement. The party’s ground operation, which relied heavily on volunteers and door-to-door canvassing, has been bolstered by a fundraising surge that saw Reform raise £4.2 million in the first quarter of 2026, its best-ever quarterly fundraising total.
The Conservative Party, fighting to retain its position as the principal party of the right, has attempted to neutralise Reform’s appeal by sharpening its own rhetoric on immigration and by distancing itself more explicitly from the legacy of the Johnson and Sunak governments. New Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has argued that the party must offer a more coherent and principled conservatism rather than simply mimicking Reform’s positions, though internal polling suggests significant portions of the Conservative membership remain attracted to Reform’s more confrontational approach.
Labour strategists insist the party remains well-placed to defend its key council seats in urban areas, pointing to its continued strength in London, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham. However, party insiders acknowledge privately that Reform’s advance in working-class communities in the Midlands and North represents a genuine electoral threat that cannot be dismissed as a temporary protest phenomenon.
— Thomas Hargreaves, London Capital Post
