popularity reached its lowest level<\/a> in six years.<\/p>\nAccording to a YouGov poll for The Times, just 20 per cent of people would vote for Sir Keir Starmer\u2019s party, while Reform has the lead in England and Wales.<\/p>\n
Labour\u2019s numbers are only one point down on the previous week but marked the worst result since 2019. Reform led the weekly voting intention poll, with 28 per cent of respondents saying they intended to vote for the party.<\/p>\n
Despite having four MPs, Reform has consistently topped the polls for months after taking the majority of council seats up for election in May. The party is confident of doing so again next spring.<\/p>\n
A Reform source said: \u201cLabour is behaving like the opposition and not the government.\u201d<\/p>\n
They also believe Farage has moved on from the political battle that defined his career, and think Brexit isn\u2019t an issue many voters feel as passionately about now. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t talk about it all the time. Do we still believe in Brexit? Yeah. But the debate is 10 years on now,\u201d they said. <\/p>\n
Farage was asked on Wednesday whether he would do a migration deal with the EU and did not rule it out, saying he would consider it if the conditions were right. <\/p>\n
Taking the fight to Reform over the EU could be a risky strategy for Labour.<\/p>\n
Polling from the More in Common think tank found that while 71 per cent of voters believe the UK economy has got worse since leaving the EU, the issue of how much sovereignty should be ceded to Brussels is more divisive. Some 38 per cent would rather the government prioritise sovereignty and set UK-only rules,<\/b> even if this means lower growth, compared to 44 per cent who are open to following more EU rules to boost growth.<\/p>\n
One senior government source said that the public had moved on enough from Brexit. They said the growing threat posed by authoritarian states such as Russia, Iran and China meant there was more of a desire for Britain to protect itself by working closer with allies.<\/p>\n
They insisted, however, that Starmer\u2019s ultimate aim is not to rejoin the EU. \u201cWe have done Brexit, it\u2019s not about rehashing whether Brexit was a good thing or bad thing, it\u2019s about how we can make it work for today,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
Labour is alive to claims of \u201cbetrayal\u201d by Farage. Thomas-Symonds said in his speech: \u201cSome will hysterically cry even treason. Some will say we\u2019re surrendering sovereignty or freedoms, but that is nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Worker](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\/94e7ce60-81be-4d43-a4d0-c9a41afb68d4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Labour is attempting to rebuild ties with the EU and improve the situation for businesses<\/p>\n
CHRIS RATCLIFFE\/BLOOMBERG\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n
To paint a positive vision of closer ties with the EU, Farage was presented as a blocker to progress.<\/p>\n
The government source said. \u201cHe\u2019s beyond happy to suggest that he wants to do deals with the Taliban, but he can\u2019t bring himself to do any deals with the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n
A second insider said: \u201cThe thing Keir has done best over the last six months has been his place on the world stage. This could be leading to a set of Farage being aligned with the villains, and we\u2019re making an impact on the global stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ministers have become more comfortable with talking up the benefits of working with the EU, but have been cautious. The strategy has been \u2014 in the words of one senior Labour aide \u2014 to \u201cmake Brexit boring again\u201d. But that does not mean future negotiations will be smooth.<\/p>\n
European sources indicated they would be \u201ctough\u201d in negotiations and that Britain would concede on some areas.<\/p>\n
Labour strategists also believe there is value in trying to remove the heat from the debate. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere has to be a mechanism for moving beyond the polarisation of Brexit,\u201d the insider said. \u201cA lot of Reform\u2019s success relies on anger, and it relies on the feuding and conflict of that time, so he has to keep that going.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first source agreed, adding: \u201cWhen the narrative is that Britain is failing, Nigel Farage makes hay, that\u2019s the fuel for his model of politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
But added: \u201cIf he\u2019s not going to talk about what the consequences of his decisions or policies are, then we will.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour is banking on voters having moved on from Brexit in order to attempt to paint Nigel Farage\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187],"class_list":{"0":"post-378817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115103253476657457","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n