Reform UK Surges Ahead in Latest Polls, Sparking Tory Condemnation
Kemi Badenoch labels Reform UK 'woke' as YouGov poll places them above Labour and Conservatives, hinting at a hung parliament.
Image: Eddie Pollard / AI
Callum Smith
Reform UK has surpassed both Labour and the Conservatives in recent YouGov polling.
Reform UK commands 23 per cent support in a YouGov poll, surpassing Labour at 22 per cent and the Tories at 19 per cent.
Kemi Badenoch labelled Reform UK as “woke,” defining the term as a focus on grievance, victim narratives, and oppressor narratives. Badenoch stated, "Reform are a woke party. And I know a lot of people don't understand, the word woke is used to mean many things, a lot of people assume it's a Left-wing thing."
When I talk about woke, I talk about people who, it's all grievance, it's victim narratives, people are doing this to us, oppressor narratives, this is the oppressor class.
She clarified her definition, explaining, "When I talk about woke, I talk about people who, it's all grievance, it's victim narratives, people are doing this to us, oppressor narratives, this is the oppressor class." Badenoch elaborated that this perspective manifests as "whites are the oppressors or men are the oppressors" on the Left, and "the establishment are the oppressors" on the Right.
Such approaches, she concluded, are "all moaning and whingeing and not proper solutions," focusing instead on "power dynamics and how to get power, not actually solutions and how to fix things." Nigel Farage, who resigned his House of Commons seat in Clacton to force a by-election, accused Kemi Badenoch of “weakness and bad judgment.”
The Conservative Party's polling has dropped, while Reform UK has outlined five conditional demands for a potential deal, including mass deportations and a burqa ban. Kemi Badenoch stated the Conservative Party will not form any agreements, either pre-election or post-election, with Reform UK, asserting, "I don't see how I could possibly have people like that in some form of coalition."
Separately, Joshua Bonehill-Paine, convicted of racially harassing a Jewish former MP in 2016, has been given a new role as an adviser to the Conservative party's culture and integration commission. Baroness Luciana Berger is an ex-MP victimised by Mr Bonehill-Paine.
Nigel Farage accepted a £5 million gift from British cryptocurrency investor Christopher Harborn. Robert Jenrick joined Reform UK in January.
Kemi Badenoch maintains, "I'm not trying to unite the Right, I'm trying to unite the country. You can't run the country with just one half of it." Andy Burnham is preferred as Prime Minister over Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage, though the effectiveness of a potential Burnham government in delivering on voter priorities remains uncertain.