![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/london-united-kingdom-reform-uk-leader-nigel-farage-speaks-during-a-press-conference-in-6842751.jpg\" "\\"People")
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People keep on voting for change – maybe this time they’ll get it from Nigel Farage (Image: Getty)<\/p>\n
The secret of Nigel Farage\u2019s<\/a> success has been revealed – by an unlikely source. Reform UK<\/a> remains the most popular party in the UK according to opinion polls, although the outcome of the next general election is still uncertain. Mr Farage<\/a> is known for his campaigns against the EU, and Reform UK is seen as the party most likely to bring down immigration.<\/p>\n But detailed research, asking Reform supporters why they back the party, has found this doesn\u2019t quite explain the party\u2019s appeal. What\u2019s turned many voters against the traditional parties, such as Keir Starmer<\/a>\u2019s Labour Party and Kemi Badenoch\u2019s Conservatives<\/a>, is a sense that their local communities are going downhill. Local shops are closing. The streets are rundown. People don\u2019t feel safe going out at night. The local supermarket is putting security tags on everything, because shoplifting has become commonplace.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong> Desperate Keir Starmer is blaming Farage and Kemi for Donald Trump’s war <\/a><\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong> Lefty council bosses offered staff counselling after Nigel Farage visited city <\/a><\/p>\n And there\u2019s a sense that things are getting worse – not better. In particular, voters fear that good jobs are drying up, and their children or grandchildren will have worse lives than they did.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lazy tendency to imagine some sort of battle is taking place between the generations, with older people hoarding all the wealth at the expense of the young. The truth is that older generations want younger people to have a bright future, and are furious that it doesn\u2019t seem to be on offer.<\/p>\n Many younger workers, meanwhile, are struggling with sky-high income tax payments caused by so-called student loan repayments, which are really just a stealth tax on their wages.<\/p>\n The rot set in back in 2008, when the banking crisis ruined the economy. More recently, we\u2019ve had Covid<\/a>, then the Ukraine<\/a> war and now the war in Iran, all causing huge shocks to our standard of living. Governments tried to deal with the problems by borrowing huge sums of money, and the Treasury now spends billions just servicing its massive debt.<\/p>\n How have voters responded? The vote for Brexit<\/a> in 2016 was a vote for change. So was Boris Johnson<\/a>\u2019s landslide election win in 2019, when he won over former Labour voters in “red wall” seats. And so, in fact, was the surge of support for Jeremy Corbyn, when he was Labour leader, and support for the Green Party today.<\/p>\n People keep on voting for change, but they are not getting it. And one of the beneficiaries is Mr Farage. A lot of voters hope he is the man who will finally get a grip.<\/p>\n The unlikely source who has analysed this is a Labour MP called Liam Byrne, previously a Treasury Minister in Gordon Brown\u2019s Labour government.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n He\u2019s set out his theories in a book called Why Populists Are Winning. As you can tell from the title, he\u2019s not a fan of Mr Farage. The word \u201cpopulist\u201d is rarely used as a compliment.<\/p>\n But his explanation for why many voters have lost faith in the traditional parties – including the one he is a member of – is spot on.<\/p>\n