47Received 13.10.2025. Revised 18.11.2025. Accepted 12.01.2026.
Abstract. This article assesses the current state and political potential of Nigel Farage’s dramatically strengthened Reform UK party. The 2024 general election and the May 2025 local elections in England demonstrated that the Reform UK, created from the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and Brexit Party, is transforming from a “hybrid party”, according to the approaches of the Russian political scientist Sergei Peregudov, into a mainstream force setting the tone of British politics. First, the Reform UK party led by the party leader Nigel Farage, won five seats in the House of Commons in July 2024, with a record 4 million votes (third-largest vote total). Then, in the 2025 local elections in England, they dealt a crushing blow to the two established parties – Labour and the Conservatives – by securing a majority of votes. However, the victory of right-wing forces in the local elections should not be overestimated. Following the 2025 election results, they hold only 5% of seats in local governments across the country. The Green Party of England and Wales holds the same percentage. Both are showing steady growth in electoral support. The article presents a portrait of an ordinary voter of N. Farage’s party, based on sociological data and public opinion polls. The table at the end of the article gives an idea of the number of seats for all key parties following the 2025 local elections. Conclusions are being drawn that the results of these elections have already demonstrated a rather lukewarm attitude toward Labour among voters. Therefore, for the ruling party, such results are an important signal from society, whose demand for positive changes in the country’s socio-economic life has not yet been met. During his reign (which has now been over a year), Prime Minister Keir Starmer has neglected social issues and his interactions with colleagues on these issues, as he himself admitted. Dissatisfaction with Labour’s policies is growing in society and among Keir Starmer’s fellow party members, which plays into the hands of right-wing populists and other political forces. Another challenge for the party-political system is the creation of a new left-wing party. In July 2025, John Corbyn, the former leader and former member of the UK Labour Party, the current Member of the House of Commons, announced the creation of a “political party of a new type” together with Zarah Sultana, the former Member of Parliament. The new organization does not yet have a single leader or a program – there is only the website “Your Party” (which is also its temporary name) containing the call to join its ranks. Based on the results of the 2024 general election and 2025 local elections in England, as well as sociological surveys of the right-wing populist party’s electoral base, ratings of leading politicians, and other materials, conclusions are drawn about the logical, rather than situational increase in the influence of Nigel Farage’s party and the qualitative transformation of the UK’s party-political system toward a multiparty system.
Keywords: Nigel Farage, Reform UK, Keir Starmer, Great Britain, right-wing populism
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