Reform UK has topped a major national opinion poll for the first time in the latest boost for Nigel Farage.
The YouGov survey puts the insurgent party on 25%, up two points from the week before.
Labour is second with 24%, down three points, while the Conservatives are on 21%, down one.
Almost one in four Tory voters at the last election now back Reform, while just 60% of those who supported Sir Keir Starmer’s party in July would do so again.
Reacting to the poll, Reform leader Mr Farage said on X: “Breaking news. Reform UK are now leading with YouGov for the first time. Britain wants Reform.”
The survey of 2,223 British adults, carried out from February 2-3, also found that the Clacton MP is more popular than Sir Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch.
Mr Farage’s net favourability rating stands at minus 27, compared to the Tory leader on minus 29 and the PM on minus 36.
Anthony Wells, head of European political and social research at YouGov, said the research showed all three main parties were effectively level pegging.
He told The Times: “We’ve had Labour and Reform extremely close over all our polls so far this year and this survey shows a narrow Reform lead.
“While it remains within the margins of error it reinforces the fact that Reform is roughly equal in support with Labour with Conservative slipping back again.”
Reform has previously topped polls by other companies but it is the first time the party has taken the lead in a survey by YouGov.
It comes after Mr Farage told the Daily Express there was a “good chance” he could be Britain’s next PM.
Speaking at a Reform rally in Essex last Friday, he said: “Some great polls, amazing polls, so we are the opposition.
“Can Reform win the next election? Well, the history books say no, but I just feel something remarkable is going on, something really historic, something we’ve never seen in our lifetimes.
“Probably the last time you saw a movement like this was in 1918 when Labour suddenly emerged as a massive political party and the Liberals disappeared as a party of government. There is a good chance I could be the next prime minister.”
