Reform UK Hit Westminster High

More Leavers have turned away from the Tories.

If you want evidence of the huge impact that Reform UK could have at the next election, just look at Redfield and Wilton’s latest poll for Wales.

With the election fast approaching, there is still little sign of a Conservative fightback.

Instead Reform have hit a new high in a Westminster poll. And that’s before Nigel Farage potentially returns to frontline politics.

With high taxes, high immigration and the boats not being stopped, Reform’s pledge to deliver net zero immigration whilst opposing green taxes is going to ramp up pressure on the Tories.

Stuart Mitchell/@IncMonocle

Add to that Reform’s stance on leaving the ECHR and standing against every Conservative MP and you can see what a potential impact this could have.

Reform UK have now hit 12% in a Westminster poll, with Redfield and Wilton having the party in third place in Wales.

That compares to Labour with a big lead on 43% and the Tories just 10 points ahead of Reform on 22%.

The likes of Plaid Cymru and Liberal Democrats meanwhile are on 10% and 7%.

It still doesn’t seem to have sunk in for some that Richard Tice’s pledge - a Reform candidate in every English, Welsh and Scottish constituency - is an iron one.

Tory MPs who were given free runs by the Brexit Party last time round won’t have the same luxury this time.

Had serial election winner Boris Johnson still been leading the Tories I think they would have stood a better chance.

But the numbers are looking increasingly dire for Sunak’s Party and it seems more Brexiteers are now switching to Reform instead.

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Poland and Hungary Against EU Deal

I covered in a previous newsletter the Polish plan to press ahead with a referendum on the EU’s Migration and Asylum Pact.

Subsequently we have seen research confirming that a majority of Polish voters are in favour of such a vote on this EU Deal.

The other Government to vote against the EU Pact was in Hungary, where it seems three-quarters of the country is against the plan.

It isn’t a left/right issue: 58% of left-wing Hungarian voters also oppose it.

What sort of democracy can you be inside the EU when your Government is overruled and voters are ignored?