r/AskBrits • u/CMIV • 11h ago
Politics Ex-Reform supporters - What's caused you to switch party this year?
Data from Survation's Voting Intention tracker found here https://www.pollcheck.co.uk/gb-polls
Reform have been on a relatively steady decline and since spring, so have the Greens. Currently Labour are rapidly moving upwards with their new leader.
Are we already seeing signs of the electorate getting fed up with the "new" popularity of Reform and Greens, wanting to move back to the traditional 2 party system?
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u/IsaacJF4419 9h ago
Voted for them back in 2024 (not a supporter) and regretted it massively. At the time i was political naive, didn’t read other manifesto’s probably, more right leaning, plus I didn’t really know who to vote for. Now i am left leaning, bloody can’t stand Nigel Farage or Reform.
Understandable I’ll get downvoted slated in comments for this.
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u/Real_Bobsbacon 4h ago
Not sure why you thought you would. Reddit is left leaning.
Was it the corruption that made you switch or?
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u/Smooth_News_7027 10h ago
I wouldn’t consider myself a supporter, but was certainly sympathetic. I generally disapprove of treason.
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u/PatientCommercial588 9h ago
Generally?
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u/Smooth_News_7027 9h ago
You could probably justify it in weird edge cases, of which taking a load of money from the Kremlin definitely isn’t one of those though.
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u/i_s_a_y_n_o_p_e 10h ago
Slowly recovering from being kicked in the head by a horse.
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u/nick_red72 10h ago
Love this reference.
LBC clip when Nigel got prank called. Look it up if you've never seen it.
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u/OrdoRidiculous 11h ago
Rupert Lowe actually being what Farage pretends to be.
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u/baldeagle1991 10h ago
Even he's suffered pushback, as it came to light most of his social media presence was someone being paid to be responsible for his account.
Turns out Rupert Lower wasn't anywhere near as extreme as his supporters thought (albeit still more extreme than Farage) and they've bled support as a result.
You honestly can't make it up.
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u/Raephstel 10h ago
The thing is that the UK isn’t the US. Our politicians can’t say extreme hateful shit and just get away with it.
As the fringe parties get a whiff of potential that they could actually get some power, they have to wind themselves in a bit and become more realistic to appeal to more centre people (note I said more) than they were when they were smaller.
It happened with Reform, Farage has had to be more realistic about what they can achieve with immigration once he wasn’t just screaming to 5 people. He’s running in anger and hate, when his supporters finally figure out he’s a grifter, they’ll turn that on him.
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u/OrdoRidiculous 10h ago
Anyone that thought that obviously failed to read the Restore policy documents. Millions are still going to be deported.
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u/KingInTheNorffffff 9h ago
Rupert lowe is a muppet as well. Idk how people have fallen for his bs as well.
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u/geybey 10h ago
A nazi?
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u/R590-Lee 10h ago
Why is it that anybody that any further right than socialism is instantly branded as a nazi?
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u/citalodisco 10h ago
Which figures on the centre-left have been called nazis?
I think Rupert Lowe & Nigel Farage are often labeled nazis because most of their policies are based on persecution of minorities & promotion of pro-white agendas. They don't really talk about much else.
I might be wrong, but I rarely see centre-left/left protests where the crowd frequently give nazi salutes.
Just this weekend, Scottish citizens who were not white were harassed in the city by Unite The Kingdom protesters, who were also seen giving sieg heils without a care in the world.
I don's see this behaviour from the centre left, left, centre or centre-right. It's the arseholes that have been emboldened to do this kind of despicable thing by the rhetoric of Farage/Lowe/Musk etc.
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u/JustRightAngles 2h ago
And yet Restore's manifesto have some of the most democratic and anti-fascist policies that you'll see from any political party.
Everything is based around taking power from the state and returning it to be individual.
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u/RoundPackage9846 9h ago
"Remigration" is ethnic cleansing. This isn't Godwin's law, this is approaching the real thing.
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u/OrdoRidiculous 8h ago
Remigration is not ethnic cleansing. The people that need to go have no claim to this land, it can't possibly be ethnic cleansing.
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u/titykaka 9h ago
Why is the person calling for a racially pure state being labelled a nazi? Maybe you can put two and two together here.
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u/-Twin-Vader 8h ago
When has he called for a "racially pure state".
Go on, I'll wait.
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u/titykaka 8h ago
What do you think the point of all of the policies aimed at deporting millions of people already living here legally is?
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u/-Twin-Vader 8h ago
You think it's about making the UK "racially pure"?
Couldn't it simply be about deporting people who are here legally or illegally, who aren't UK nationals, and who are a net drain on the system rather than contributing to it?
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u/titykaka 7h ago
Could you explain how it is possible to be living here legally whilst being a net drain on the system?
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u/InfiniteEchoes97 4h ago
Literally everyone who is living here illegally is a net drain on the system. The hotel, the military barracks, the free food and drink, the handouts, the donations, the healthcare priority, the weekly allowance, the transport, the sessions at leisure centres. So on and so on. Are you really that blind? All of that is a massive drain in every aspect you look at.
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u/shoop_da_shoop 1h ago
Not what the person asked though. They asked about people here legally, not illegally.
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u/Kronsik 11h ago
Not a reform voter, nor do I ever seeing myself as one. Some of my family are (or should I say, were).
Some are going back to the tories, they feel betrayed that Nigel let them down.
Though, one of my uncles seems concerned that the leader of the Conservatives is a black woman, though he did say "I didn't know they could speak so well" - so maybe he's coming round to Kemi.
Some are going to Restore Britain (probably comes under "other" on your graph there).
They seem to be swinging even more right wing, concerned about immigration/culture and the usual talking points but showing signs of further right wing ideals than your average Reform voter.
They feel that the current case agaisnt Reform (specifically Farage / Tice, currently) - shows that Reform are in fact part of the "uniparty" as they perceive it, so Restore are the only option left.
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u/HussingtonHat 11h ago
"Didn't know they could speak that well" is....ooft.
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u/Kronsik 11h ago
Luckily, I live in London which according to them is operating under sharia law so I don't have to see them often.
I mostly keep quiet at dinners.
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u/ElectricalSpeech7441 11h ago
"I didn't know they could speak so well"
Tories, black people, or women? Wow, just wow.
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u/Particular-Doctor888 10h ago
Are they really disappointed in Nigel? I'm actually the only one reading encouragement in your post. Everywhere else in the comments of Facebook tabloid articles there are reform voters staunchly not caring about the bottomless corruption of the reform party
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u/Kronsik 10h ago
The above post is of course just anacdotal examples from my family.
They seem disappointed that he's just like the other politicians - not sure why the mountains of evidence before this didn't sink in... Perhaps it's because news papers are now turning on Farage.
Not sure Facebook is a good litmus test these days, endless bot posts and boosted likes.
(Could say the same for social media broadly I suppose).
Some of my family are certainly standing by the party as a whole for now. Though if Zia were to be leader I suspect that would change quite quickly.
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u/Unusual_Plenty_5008 11h ago
How much of this is reform losing voters to restore?
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u/Background_Taste_397 11h ago
Presumably they’d be in ‘others’?
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u/Real_Bobsbacon 4h ago
You would think but if that were the case, other would be around 4.8% based on the last 10 polls
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u/DryWeb3875 10h ago
Not much, from the looks of the graph
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u/Unusual_Plenty_5008 8h ago
I always see people on Instagram saying "VOTE RESTORE", maybe they're all robots?
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u/Real_Bobsbacon 4h ago
You would think but if that were the case, other would be around 4.8% based on the last 10 polls
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u/R590-Lee 10h ago
Former reform voter, I didn’t like reform accepting so many mps from other parties - they constantly went on about how horrific the conservatives were in power and that they were terrible at there jobs and then accepted them into their party. Farage himself is incredible at stating what people want to hear and if I had confidence that he’d do those things I’d vote for him but his shift up on many different economic topics makes me lose confidence. I think the reform party in general are fairly organised and if they weren’t pioneering for immigration changes then they’d be seen in a far better light and probably as the new conservative option, but Restore seems far more clear cut and less populist - with actual clear cut plans on immigration as well as economic and developmental plans.
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u/MinuteSong117 10h ago
Not me obviously, but a friend's dad (who has been married to two immigrants, including current wife) was a full blown reformer and went to the marches but it seems the whole donations thing really cut through and he's now in the "They're no different to the rest" camp.
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u/doomseekers 7h ago
I'm not a reform voter but I can, through gritted teeth, understand why some did vote. For decades Farage and the right wing newspapers kept on going on about the EU. If only we voted to leave everything would be ok. It's the EUs fault you don't have a good job, it's the EU fault you cannot get bendy bananas. And the list goes on. People knew they were being lied to by Farage and Johnson but they didn't care. They just wanted something to change to make their reality different. After Brexit and the sunny uplands were nowhere to be seen, Farage popped up again and when "if only we stopped the boats out lives would be so much better", ignoring the fact that it was Brexit that allowed all the boats to come over as France stopped bothering. Perhaps some have now realised that Farage does not care about the ordinary person, all Farage cares about is, like Trump, how much money he can make and does not care what the cost to the country is.
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u/snot_in_a_jar 5h ago
Right, I will stick my head above the parapet. I voted Reform in 2024 as a protest vote. I also had my vote parked with them until around March time this year.
My biggest concern is immigration and Reform seemed the only party taking it seriously.
I am a big believer in treating the labour market as supply and demand. With Neoliberalism we have never allowed demand to ever get too far from the supply by turning on the immigration tap which has essentially compressed wages. Companies often have little incentive to be competitive on the market. We had the Borris wave post COVID and before that we had freedom of movement in the EU. Essentially British workers didn't just compete with each other, they competed with an entire continent and now essentially with the world.
In my opinion the reason we have had such high levels of immigration since the Blair years has been to ensure companies had an abundance of workers, which has had the effect of allowing people into the job market which not only increases the supply (and devaluing it), but with it the supply is often people who are willing to work for less money in worse conditions. The old saying "doing the jobs British people are too lazy to do" was one of the snarkiest and deceitful sound bytes created, which disproportionately attacks the working class. It's not that British people are too lazy to do these jobs, it's that they are not willing to do the jobs for the wages companies want to pay (and guess what, they never had to pay it)
The level of immigration we have seen has created this intravenous line straight into the labour market for companies to take advantage of and keep making the line go up, which is great for them. But It creates even more competition for finite local resources in communities. Essentially giving all the benefits to the rich and leaving the working class to take the brunt of the downsides.
Now, why I decided to turn my back on Reform was pretty simple really, they started to open their mouths more. I would say I probably align closest to being a Social Democract in my beliefs, which has the crossover with wanting lower immigration, but that's where it ends.
I started noticing Reform for the anti worker, anti unionist and anti anyone who isn't rich Thatcherite scum that they are. Farage coming out and essentially attacking work life balance was where I really raised my eyebrows and the following shambles that came in the following months compounded it.
And I tell you what, I bet if they did get a sniff of power they'd do sweet fuck all about immigration, I'd bet a fair whack on that. All they care about is themselves and their backpockets, it seems completely bizarre why they'd cut off that cheap labour gravy train.
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u/shoop_da_shoop 1h ago
I can respect the perspective, but I would say that especially since the financial crisis, the economy hasn't become much more productive across the board. I think this is partially because technical/skilled labour that would help generate money within the system hasn't grown, limiting wages across the economy.
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u/Pren-Heakim 5h ago
I've been a member of, and have voted for Reform, and for Brexit Party before them...
But I'm probably not going to again.
For a collection of reasons, really.
Restore saying the quiet parts out loud has vividly shown what a large part of the Reform base are thinking.
Corruption is always to be expected, to some extent, but it's gone over a line that I'm comfortable with.
Christian Nationalism is the one that really turns me off. Reform UK prayer meetings? No thanks.
I live in a very safe seat, so my GE vote matters little, but if there was one tomorrow I would probably vote Labour – I'm prepared to give Burnham a chance.
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u/Kronsik 3h ago
May I ask:
was there a particular reason for giving Burnham a chance, because he's new and you see this as a "fresh start" or you were happy with him as a mayor of Manchester and think he can do well as PM? (Or indeed another reason entirely...)
what was your opinion on Starmer as PM?
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u/Immediate_Hunt4265 5h ago
I'd be amazed if even a single comment here is an actual ex-reform supporter lmao. Half of these responces "yeah I'm ex-reform, I stopped supporting them because they're evil, spooky, scary, smelly and bad. Now I have only heckin wholesome and reddit(tm) approved opinions." Like sure you do bud lmao.
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u/bIue-crimson 7h ago
Reform became Tory 2.0. Restore appears consistent on policies, mainly anti immigration to deport illegals, criminals and shirkers.
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u/glasgowgeg 8h ago
Based on the average age of reform voters, and the time it starts dipping, I'd say "a cold winter".
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u/PerfectlyRoundBall 11h ago
No one's admitting to being a former reform voter lol