Working-class voters abandoning Labour for Reform

Deserters blame Sir Keir Starmer’s broken and undelivered promises for move to Nigel Farage’s party

25 June 2025 

Daily Telegraph 

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Working-class voters are abandoning Labour for Reform UK, a major poll has shown.

More than half of 2024 Labour voters (52 per cent) who would now back Reform live in working-class households, it found.

The YouGov survey found of more than 10,000 people found broken or undelivered promises were the main reason for people deserting Sir Keir Starmer’s party.

It comes as Reform continues to enjoy a consistent lead over Labour. Nigel Farage’s party is polling at 27 per cent across all voters while Labour is on 23 per cent and the Conservatives 17 per cent.

At the general election last July, 35 per cent of Labour supporters were in working-class households – manual workers, the unemployed and those in the lowest-paid jobs.

Just over two in five (41 per cent) who would now support another party are working-class, while the same is true of 28 per cent of those who would still back Labour.

Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, has openly declared his ambition to become Britain’s next prime minister and win dozens of traditionally Labour-held seats at the next election.

Reform made major advances in Sir Keir’s “Red Wall” heartlands at the local elections in May, gaining control of councils in Derbyshire, Durham, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire.

The results prompted a backlash from Labour MPs in these areas who urged the Prime Minister to go further on addressing issues including legal and illegal migration.

Voters switching from Labour to Reform are half as likely to hold a degree (25 per cent) than those who are sticking with the party (51 per cent).

About half of Labour to Reform switchers backed Brexit in the 2016 referendum on European Union membership.

Thirty-one per cent of these switchers had voted Tory in 2019, suggesting Mr Farage is winning over the same Red Wall voters who gave Boris Johnson a landslide majority.

When all Labour defectors were asked why they had abandoned the party, 29 per cent said the Government had either broken or not delivered on its promises.

Twenty-four per cent said cost of living pressures had not eased enough, 22 per cent said the party had “been too Right-wing” and 21 per cent believed a Labour government had “made no difference”.

Among those who would now back Reform, however, immigration was the biggest concern, with 62 per cent saying they would abandon Sir Keir’s party and support Mr Farage because immigration was still too high.

Net migration roughly halved last year but 2025 has been a record year for Channel crossings to date, casting doubt on Labour’s pledge to smash people-smuggling gangs.

One in six (17 to 18 per cent) of Labour to Reform switchers cited changes to winter fuel payments and a sense that Labour policies had left them feeling worse off.

Sir Keir was forced into an about-turn on his winter fuel raid after initially announcing a policy last July that would mean only those in receipt of pension credit would keep the payment.

A backlash from the grass roots and Left of the Labour Party ensued, and a far greater number of retirees will now be eligible for the payment this winter.

Another cause for concern in Downing Street will be the finding that out of those who have switched support from Labour to Reform, just one in eight (13 per cent) say they are likely to consider returning to Labour at the next general election.

Labour’s stance on the war in Gaza and support for the Supreme Court judgment that a woman is a biological female have cost the party Left-wing voters.

In an indication of the bind facing Sir Keir as he sheds support in multiple directions, 25 per cent and 19 per cent of Labour to Green switchers cited Gaza and trans issues respectively.