Britons tend to see the Reform UK leader as decisive, but also dislikeable and untrustworthy

Key takeaways

  • Our most recent data shows Farage is seen unfavourably by Britons by 65% to 25%
  • 39% of Britons think Farage is doing well as Reform UK leader, while 48% feel he’s doing a bad job
  • Farage is seen to be decisive by 50% of Britons, but with majorities seeing him as incompetent, unprincipled and dislikeable
  • Just 16% of Britons believe Farage is trustworthy, including just 54% of Reform UK voters

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has resigned from parliament to trigger a by-election in his Clacton constituency in protest at reporting of his financial interests. Farage says that he has “done nothing wrong” and intends to stand in the contest, claiming it will be a case of the “people versus the establishment”.

According to our most recent data, Britons hold an unfavourable opinion of Farage by a margin of 65% to 25%, with opinion towards him having gradually declined over the past year from a peak last summer.

Reform UK voters are the sole group to see him in a positive light, with 78% of those who backed the party in 2024 seeing him favourably, though with 15% viewing the stalwart Eurosceptic unfavourably. Conservative voters are more divided, with 51% seeing him unfavourably, a feeling that rises to 87-90% of those who voted Labour, Lib Dem or Green in 2024.

Britons are more inclined to feel that Farage is doing well as Reform UK leader, with 39% believing he is doing a good job, even if nearly half (48%) feeling he is doing badly in the role.

Looking at how the public view his wider personal attributes gives a more complex picture.

Half of Britons (50%) see Nigel Farage as a decisive figure, relative to a mere third (33%) seeing him as indecisive, with the public also being more likely to see him as strong than weak, albeit by a narrower margin of 44% to 38%.

However, a majority of Britons (54%) also see the Reform UK leader as both incompetent and unprincipled, relative to 27-30% describing him as either competent or principled. The public also see Farage as dislikeable by 62% to 24%, and are four times more likely to think he is untrustworthy than trustworthy (64% vs 16%).

Unsurprisingly, Reform UK voters are consistently the most likely to describe Nigel Farage in positive terms, with as many as 77-81% thinking he is strong, decisive and competent. However, just 54% describe Farage as trustworthy, with 21% outright feeling he is untrustworthy.

Roughly two thirds of Conservative voters (64-67%) agree that Farage is decisive or strong, while also tending to see him as competent (49% vs 36%). They are, though, roughly split on whether or not he is likeable (42% vs 44%) or principled (40% vs 38%), and just 29% would describe him as trustworthy, relative to 45% who see the Reform UK leader as unreliable.

Voters for the three main progressive parties mostly ascribe negative attributes to Farage, though as many as 41-45% of Labour, Lib Dem and Green voters view him as decisive.

See the full results here

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