More than half of voters view Farage and Reform as ‘very sleazy’ as Clacton by-election called for 13 August– UK politics live

From 52m agoMore than half of voters regard Farage as 'very sleazy', poll suggestsYouGov has published polling today suggesting that more than half of voters regard Nigel Farage as “very sleazy”. On this measure, he scores far worse than any of the other party leaders. Even 40% of Reform UK voters regard him as “sleazy”.Here are the figures. This chart shows the figures for parties, party leaders, and “British governments in general”.Polling on whether parties and their leaders are ‘sleazy’ Photograph: YouGovAnd this chart shows how views vary depending on which parties people support.Polling on politcians and parties viewed as ‘sleazy’ Photograph: YouGovIn his write-up for YouGov, Dylan Difford points out that Reform UK’s rating on this measure has got worse.

double quotation markReform being viewed as sleazy is not necessarily a new thing, but the perception has grown. In October 2024, at the height of the freebie-gate scandal, half of Britons saw the party as sleazy, a clear 18 points lower than today.

However, a seedy shift is not limited to Reform, with belief that the Green party is sleazy having roughly doubled from 18% to 35% over the last 21 months, while such a view of the Lib Dems is also up seven points.