Mere months ago, the suggestion that Nigel Farage could step down as the leader of Reform would have felt absurd. The party was leading in the polls, had won the local elections, and Farage had an iron grip on the leadership. But now media scrutiny is growing and rumours are awash that he has at least considered throwing in the towel. The Clacton by-election circus has not gone down well.
The idea of a post-Farage Reform might not be so far-fetched. But who would replace him? And what would his departure from frontline politics mean for the party?
Speaking to these voters in northern working-class towns, ‘Rupert’ is raised in a way that is only similar to Nigel (Farage) or Boris (Johnson)
New Public First polling suggests they would be far from enamoured by the options. Ask Reform voters who they would like to see as leader if Farage goes, and ‘don’t know’ leads the pack on 37 per cent. Bleakly for any have-a-go leadership hopefuls, Zia Yusuf is second with a whopping 14 per cent.
Part of the problem for any challenger is that, compared to other party leaders, Farage enjoys massive support among his party’s voters. We find his net favourability at a huge 68 per cent among Reform voters. Richard Tice is the only of the other party big names who is above 40 per cent. Robert Jenrick is on just 21 per cent.
