Following recent rows, as many Reform voters feel the party would be better off without Farage as leader as believe it would be worse off
This article was amended on 12 March to add additional data on Reform UK voters' attitudes towards Nigel Farage, Rupert Lowe and the other Reform UK MPs
Last week, Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe questioned aspects of Nigel Farage’s leadership of the party, saying that it remained a “protest party led by the Messiah”. Lowe was subsequently suspended from the party over allegations of workplace bullying and making physical threats.
This isn’t the first time the leadership of the party has come into question. Earlier this year, Elon Musk called for Farage to be ousted as leader, appearing to suggest that Lowe would make for a better figurehead. But do Reform UK voters themselves agree that the party would be better off under new management?
A third of Reform UK voters (33%) believe that the party would be doing better under a different leader to Nigel Farage, including a fifth (21%) who think Reform would be doing “a lot” better with an alternative leader.
Nonetheless, this is against another third of Reform UK voters (34%) who believe that the party would be doing worse if Farage was not the leader, with a quarter (25%) feeling that a different leader would not affect the party’s fortunes one way or the other.
The belief among some Reform UK voters that the party could be doing better under a different leader is noticeably more prominent than among supporters of other parties, with just 14-16% of Conservative, Labour or Lib Dem voters believing that a new leader would improve Reform’s fortunes.
This attitude among Reform supporters represents a broader cooling on Nigel Farage. Nearly a quarter of Reform UK voters (23%) now have an unfavourable opinion of the party’s leader, up from 12% last week, which was the joint highest level since the election.
Likewise, the proportion of Reform UK voters with a favourable opinion of Farage has fallen to 73%, having been at 86% last week and 91% last month. Nonetheless, this still compares positively to the 60% of Labour voters with a good opinion of Keir Starmer, 57% of Lib Dems with a positive view of Ed Davey and 48% of Conservatives who see Kemi Badenoch favourably.
Additionally, among the party’s voters Farage remains – by a clear margin – the most popular of the five MPs elected under the Reform UK banner, somewhat backing up Lowe’s charge against him that he is the party’s ‘messianic’ leader.
For the three-quarters who maintain a positive opinion of Farage, just 44% have a favourable view of deputy leader Richard Tice and 40% of party whip Lee Anderson, with four in ten Reform UK voters (40%) having no opinion of either.
While Lowe was touted as an alternative leader, having built a following on the right of the party due to his support for mass deportations of illegal immigrants and backing of Tommy Robinson, his current support among Reform UK voters does not rival Farage’s. Only 35% have a favourable view of Lowe, with almost half having no opinion of him at all (48%).
Of course, Reform UK have risen in the polls since the general election. Among the larger group of people who say the intend to vote for the party at the next election, Farage proves to be more popular (86% favourable) and Lowe slightly less so (27% favourable) than among the party's 2024 electorate.
This may in part be survivorship bias, if the most ardent Lowe fans now no longer intend to vote for the party - although Reform UK's latest vote share of 23% is within the margin of error of the 25% it was prior to the row.
Indeed, Lowe’s distinct base among 2024 Reform UK voters is rather small, suggesting that a reported breakaway party would have limited appeal. Just one in ten Reform UK voters (10%) have an unfavourable opinion of Farage while also having a favourable opinion of Lowe.
This is similar to the 12% of Reform UK voters with a positive view of Farage and negative one of Lowe, but is dwarfed by the 35% with favourable opinion of Farage and no opinion of Lowe. A quarter of the party’s voters (26%) have favourable opinions of both MPs.
See the full results here and here
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