Burnham vs Farage is set to be the great personal battle of the next three years of British politics.
Both are formidable charismatic communicators, among the few political figures to generate a genuine response from ordinary folk on the street. Both are men “of the people”, yet with privilege in their backgrounds – Farage at Dulwich College, Burnham at Cambridge.
What’s been remarkable in the five and half weeks since Burnham won the Makerfield by-election so convincingly is how little effect Burnham’s dead-certain ascent to the premiership has had on the polls. There’s been almost no Burnham bounce. In the 27 polls since Makerfield, the Labour vote has risen by only two percentage points. Farage and his party have still been ahead in all but two of those polls, albeit by much narrower margins than earlier this year.
Reform surely can’t believe their luck. Amidst all the hullaballoo about Burnham, the generous media coverage and the lack of scrutiny, Labour still hasn’t managed a single lead over Reform. And that’s especially surprising given all the negative stories about Reform, about Farage’s convicted criminal adviser George Cottrell, the allegations (which he has denied) of Farage breaking the donation rules and claims that Reform broke election laws (again, which the party has denied).
