Most Britons now consider Reform UK to be a main party

Key takeaways

  • 61% of Britons now see Reform UK as a ‘main party’, up from 19% two years ago
  • 38% of the public feel the Lib Dems are a ‘main party’, with just 24% putting the Greens in this category
  • Favourability towards the Greens has fallen since Zack Polanski became party leader
  • While the Conservatives, Labour and Reform UK all have similar net favourability scores (between -33 and -35), Reform UK tends to inspire more ‘very favourable’ and ‘very unfavourable’ views
  • 2024 Labour voters are roughly as likely to have a positive view of the Lib Dems and Greens as of Labour
  • 58% of 2024 Reform UK voters have a positive view of Restore Britain

One of the defining features of British politics over the last few years has been the growing fragmentation of the party system. Both elections and opinion polling have repeatedly shown that the Conservatives and Labour are no longer the most popular parties in the country, let alone dominant over what would once have been considered ‘minor parties’.

The public’s perception of the state of play, though, has not completely caught up. Around eight in ten Britons (78-82%) see the Conservatives and Labour as one of the ‘main parties’ today, significantly more than feel so about any other party.

Nonetheless, 61% of Britons now see Reform UK as one of the ‘main parties’, the highest figure we’ve recorded for the party to date by a clear margin, and up from just 19% in July 2024, in the aftermath of the general election.

By contrast, the proportion seeing the Lib Dems as a ‘main party’ has fallen over the last two years from 50% to 38%, despite the party making significant gains in local elections last year and this year, as well as holding 72 MPs to Reform UK’s eight.

Although the Greens have placed second in some voting intention polls this year, while also making local election gains, just a quarter of the public (24%) see them as a ‘main party’, though this is up from 18% prior to their success in the Gorton and Denton by-election, and from 11% after the 2024 general election.

Not all voters measure party stature in the same way, with Reform UK voters having the most distinct views.

Nearly all 2024 Reform voters (95%) consider Nigel Farage’s party to be one of the ‘main parties’ in Britain today, a status that 76% of Tory voters also grant, but only 47-52% of Labour, Lib Dem or Green voters say the same.

Likewise, while 80-93% of Tory, Labour, Lib Dem and Green voters still assign ‘main party’ designation to the traditional Labour-Conservative duopoly, this falls to just 57-61% among Reform voters.

Reform voters are also the least likely to grant main party status to the Lib Dems, at 18%, compared to 31% of Tories and 47-49% of Labour and Green voters. By contrast, two thirds (68%) of those who backed Ed Davey’s party in 2024 see the Liberal Democrats a main party.

Similarly, a majority of 2024 Green voters (55%) see the Greens as one of the ‘main parties’ today, far more than the 25-29% of Labour and Lib Dem voters and just 11-16% of Conservative and Reform UK voters who feel the same way.

Party favourability ratings, June 2026

While (or perhaps because) the Lib Dems and Greens are less likely to be seen as ‘main parties’, they are the two most favourably viewed parties by the public, with 34-36% of Britons seeing them in a positive light, relative to 48% having a negative opinion of the Lib Dems and 52% holding one of the Greens.

In the Greens’ case, this latter figure represents an uptick in negative opinion towards the party over recent months, with the party’s latest net favourability score of -16 the lowest recorded for the party to date. It compares to a rating of -8 for the Greens in February and between -3 and +5 in the year prior to Zack Polanski becoming leader, suggesting that greater prominence for the party has come at a price.

The overall balance in opinion towards the three ‘main parties’ is near-identical, with the Conservatives, Labour and Reform UK all being viewed favourably by 28-29% of Britons and unfavourably by 62-63%.

However, the strength of feeling does differ. A higher 13% of Britons have a very favourable opinion of Reform UK, roughly twice the 5-6% with a strongly positive opinion of the Tories or Labour. Similarly, while around four in ten (39-41%) have a very negative view of the two traditional governing parties, more than half (53%) have such an opinion of Nigel Farage’s party.

This is also the case with Restore Britain, Rupert Lowe’s party that is positioned to the right of Reform UK. Overall, 19% of Britons have a positive view of the party, including 9% who view them very favourably, while a clear majority (55%) have an unfavourable opinion of the fledgling party, including 45% who see Restore very unfavourably.

Restricting opinion solely to those who have an opinion of each party shows that fully 58-61% of those with a view of Reform UK or Restore Britain have a very unfavourable opinion of them, compared to 39-45% of those with a view of the Conservatives, Labour or Greens. The Lib Dems, by contrast, inspire strong dislike among just 29% of those with an opinion of them.

How do voters see the political parties?

Just 62% of those who voted for Labour in the 2024 general election now have a favourable opinion of the party, with nearly as many (51-55%) having similarly positive views of the Greens and Lib Dems. This is not fully reciprocated, with just 41% of 2024 Lib Dems and 37% of previous Green voters having a positive view of Labour, relative to 85-86% having a positive view of the party they backed two years ago and 50-51% liking the other one.

Reform UK is divisive within the 2024 Conservative coalition, with 47% having a favourable view of Nigel Farage’s party and 49% seeing them unfavourably. This does, though, compare to just 16% having a positive view of the Lib Dems, a similar level to the 22% of 2024 Tories who say they have such a view of Restore Britain.

Those who backed Reform UK at the last election tend to see the Conservatives unfavourably, by a margin of 55% to 41%, while a clear majority (58%) have a positive view of Restore Britain, with just 24% registering a negative view of Rupert Lowe’s party.

But while Restore Britain has sometimes been seen as a threat to Reform UK, fully 79% of people with a favourable opinion of Rupert Lowe’s party also have a positive view of Nigel Farage’s more-established force. For their part, 52% of those with a favourable opinion of Reform UK also share the same sentiment of Restore.

See the full results here and here

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