{"id":947462,"date":"2026-05-09T03:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T03:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/947462\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T03:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T03:34:14","slug":"nigel-farage-will-need-to-be-22-times-more-efficient-to-win-the-next-general-election-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/947462\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigel Farage will need to be 22 times more efficient to win the next general election \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Although the U.K. does not elect a president, it has for decades been true that many voters base their decisions on who they want in No. 10 Downing Street (or who they really want to keep away from that famous black door). Here, Farage is not, apparently, a runaway success.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According to YouGov\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/ygo-assets-websites-editorial-emea.yougov.net\/documents\/Favourability_260505.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">most recent survey<\/a>, on May 4-5, the Reform UK leader\u2019s net favorability score is -39 percent, only a little better than Starmer\u2019s score of -47 percent. Of the leaders and potential leaders polled, only Labour\u2019s Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has a net positive rating, of 4 percent.<\/p>\n<p>On the economy, too, Reform\u2019s reputation leaves room for doubters. On May 4, <a href=\"https:\/\/yougov.com\/en-gb\/trackers\/which-political-party-would-be-the-best-at-handling-the-economy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">YouGov<\/a> found only 11 percent of voters thought Farage\u2019s party would be the best at handling the economy, compared to 15 percent for Labour and 19 percent for the Conservatives.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Despite these caveats, politics is changing. As Farage has already shown, what held sway in the past is not necessarily a guide to what will happen next. <\/p>\n<p>A big 80-seat win for Boris Johnson\u2019s Tories in 2019 gave way to a Labour landslide majority of 174 seats in 2024. And now for the second year in a row, Reform UK has stormed the board in England\u2019s local elections \u2014 meaning that\u00a0millions of voters have turned out and put their crosses in a box next to one of Farage\u2019s candidates.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>They were not voting to make him PM, but they were choosing his side. Having done so once at a local or regional election, it may feel easier to do so again when the Westminster government is at stake.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although the U.K. does not elect a president, it has for decades been true that many voters base&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[8916,5109,1193,23522,33,393,2000,299,5187,807,384,712,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-947462","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-andy-burnham","9":"tag-boris-johnson","10":"tag-british-politics","11":"tag-david-cameron","12":"tag-elections","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-eu","15":"tag-europe","16":"tag-european","17":"tag-keir-starmer","18":"tag-nigel-farage","19":"tag-scotland","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116542522535376557","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947462","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=947462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}