Nigel Farage hits record unfavorable rating in YouGov poll

LONDON — A record proportion of British voters now have an unfavorable view of Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage, according to polling firm YouGov.

The proportion of Brits with an unfavorable opinion of the right-wing populist leader stands at 69% — the highest level recorded by YouGov’s political favorability tracker in the decade it has run.

It’s a rise of two percentage points since last month. Just 24% of voters recorded a favorable view of the Reform UK chief, the same poll found. The proportion who view Farage “very unfavorably” (57%) is not matched by any of the other four major party leaders.

Newly-installed Labour Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues to be viewed favorably by 46% of Brits — the same figure as last month — though the proportion who view him unfavorably has risen six points to 39% in the last month.

YouGov sampled 2,099 adults in Great Britain between Sept. 9 and 10.

The findings come at a difficult time for Reform UK.

Farage’s party — which stormed ahead in local elections earlier this year in a grim night for the governing Labour Party — is now under investigation by parliamentary authorities over an undeclared £5 million gift from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.

Two of Farage’s aides — Dan Jukes and policy chief James Orr — stood down earlier this month pending an investigation into an undercover donations sting.

But the outfit has just been buoyed by a record £72m cash injection from two financiers. It has promised to use the funding — which has triggered a row over political financing in the U.K. — to beef up its policy and campaigning operations.