March 6, 2025 - 12:45pm
Donald Trump’s popularity among Reform UK voters has plummeted since the US President’s Ukraine interventions, according to new polling.
Figures from YouGov show that over half of Reform supporters (53%) view Trump unfavourably, an increase of 25 percentage points. As a result, his net favourability rating with the voter group has gone from +38 to -8 in just over two weeks. Meanwhile, 80% of all Britons view him negatively, up seven points.
A strong supporter of Trump, Reform leader Nigel Farage has also experienced a dip in favourability ratings. Only a quarter of Britons (26%) now have a positive view of him, down from 30% in mid-February, against two-thirds of the public (65%) who view him negatively.
This comes after Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky’s angry exchange in the Oval Office last week, after which the US cut military aid and intelligence to Kyiv. The Ukrainian President described the incident as “regrettable” and reiterated in a letter to his American counterpart that “nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians.”
Afterwards, Farage criticised Zelensky, saying that he had played the White House meeting “very badly” and was guilty of “showing no respect” for Trump. The Reform leader tempered his friendliness towards the new administration by saying that Vice President JD Vance was “wrong, wrong, wrong” to hint that the UK was a “random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years”.
In contrast, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has seen an uptick in his popularity after swiftly inviting Zelensky to Downing Street in the wake of the White House confrontation. Starmer assured the Ukrainian President that he has “full backing across the United Kingdom”. The proportion of Britons with a favourable view of the PM has increased from 26% in mid-February to 31%, while the proportion with an unfavourable view has fallen from 66% to 59%, leaving his favourability at its highest level in six months.
Farage has made no secret of both his support for Trump and his view that Nato expansion partly provoked Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Yet public support in Britain for Ukraine has remained significant. At the start of the war in February 2022, 68% of Britons supported UK assistance for Ukraine. In a recent Ipsos poll, this had only fallen to 53%.
Farage’s political opponents have condemned him as a result. Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel this week compared him to former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for “equivocating” about Russia’s war of aggression. The Reform UK leader also came under fire for arguing that alleged Nazi salutes made by Elon Musk and Steve Bannon earlier this year were not fascist in nature as they were “out to the side”.
Reform MP Richard Tice, however, rejected the idea that the party is divided over Ukraine, with some MPs being more pro-Trump than others. “As Nigel has said, the only peace that works is an enduring, lasting peace with robust security guarantees,” he said last weekend.
“I think I am the only senior political figure that has donated a five-figure sum, bought a 4×4 pickup, filled it with medical supplies, driven it to Ukraine, given it to frontline soldiers,” he added. “I am not taking any nonsense from anybody. We are completely robust.”
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SubscribeIn July 2021, half the public supported keeping face masks compulsory in shops and on public transport permanently, regardless of whether coronavirus was under control nationally or globally. There was widespread public support for maintaining other restrictions permanently, including keeping nightclubs closed forever. Talk is cheap: it’s easy to support a faraway war which is being fought and paid for by somebody else. But when circumstances change, so too can public opinion.
Indeed. Just watch the UK public view towards America change.
Right, and when their welfare benefits reduce, I think their opinions will change. To pay for our army, let us scrap the idiocy of NetZero.
Yes this Zelensky-mania/Extreme TDS is the new craze like COVID lockdown, BLM, woke etc were……in a few years time only a few lunatics will maintain the faith, the rest of the sheep will pretend they never fell for it.
We are kind of seeing it happen to net zero. Mass almost unanimous support a few years ago, now being quietly dropped
You wish. British public actually showing they’ve more sense, including a sense of our History, on Ukraine than the Putin fanboys regularly writing articles here on Unherd and the applause that goes with it.
I am a member of Reform but ‘Quelle surprise’ !
Except … this article should add the word ‘erstwhile’ to “Reform voters’ approval”.
Poor Richard Tice
Still, at least we got to find out about Farage before he got anywhere near the levers of power. Don’t worry. He will be offksy to the US to scrounge the last scraps from Maga before you can say ‘opportunist’.
I suspect this brouhaha will have no effect on Reform’s electoral chances.
I have come to the conclusion that a reputation for sticking to your opinions in the face of pressure is the most important asset a politician can have. This is because they almost always backslide on what they promise their voters (see Tories and immigration).
Anyway Farage’s opinion is not in any way suspect. The eastward expansion of the EU and NATO was indeed the justification used by Russia to invade Ukraine. Whether this was an excuse or the Russians really perceive this as a security threat is a moot point. Farage was simply saying that this would make war more likely and it did.
He has never been pro-Russian and has always support Ukraine’s defence. Nor is Trump’s position wrong. He has concluded that Ukraine cannot win (which is also a fairly common view among the Ukrainian top-brass according to The Spectator) and so a ceasefire and some sort of peace deal is in order. Farage agrees with him. So do I.
I fully expect in a few weeks a ceasfire will be underway, a peace deal will be under negotiation and Trump’s view will be the majority view among the public. And at that time, Farage will have been shown to be resolute and prescient.
Its clear you have forgotten all about the ‘peace deal’ in Afghanistan. The rest of the world has not.
Not so sure. Reform attracts it’s crack-pots that even Farage knows v unhelpful Including the Reform Wales leader now in Court for taking payments from Russia to post supportive stories. The FSB won’t have just singled him out will they, so one suspects much more of this will emerge at v unhelpful moments for Reform and for those ‘on the take’ rightly so.
I think a ceasefire/armistice poss in not distant future. Putin needs it. But a peace deal miles off. Putin doesn’t want peace. He wants a pause, exploit any western weakness and have his fanboy Trump ease the pressure on him and then find ways to hit Ukraine again.
Nonsense.
Trump will end the stupid proxy war that the West/US neocons wanted for 30 years and move on.
We will then stop using Ukraine and Georgia to antagonise Russia and start buying their cheap gas again. This is good.
Trump will then move onto China and the real fireworks will begin.
The average reform voter will have forgotten all about Ukraine by Christmas and as they really are the only answer to the two tier progressive socialist hell they find themselves in, they will continue to vote for them.
The only fireworks with China will be the sound and fury of American jets running away from their Taiwanese ‘allies’
What a load of utter rubbish.
Painful I appreciate that actually Public much more aligned on this than you’d like.
The fact you seem to think fine for Putin to lob missiles into civilian areas and kill innocent folks and it’s not somehow his fault means either you’re compromised somehow, plan ignorant or a bit dim.
The Ukrainians ‘lobbing’ missiles at the civilians in the Donbas was partially what started this in the first place. You seem to think this was okay. 15,000 mainly women and children were killed in 8 years. This didn’t start in ‘22.
It would be interesting to see a breakdown of Reform support according to age group and how these latest developments in the Ukraine have fed into support in different age groups.
I would bet that the dive in support for Trump and the uptick in support for Starmer would be most pronounced in older age groups who still cling on to the memory of Britain being a real player on the world stage and who like to read the Telegraph, puff up their chests and say “Britain needs to stand up to bullies!”…which isn’t incorrect as such because Trump cutting a deal with Putin isn’t really the stuff of high morals, but it’s absurd given Britain’s obvious impotence in this situation and the world generally.
Boomerworld is now a thing of the past.
Look. Its has nothing to do with the UK. And nobody cares about approval ratings (except those Boomers living abroad who are not in touch Katharine).
What is going through the minds of Russians, Chinese and Arabs do you think ? And if you were seeking allies after the cessation of armaments and intelligence to Ukraine during an existential war, would you pick America or China ?
In general I wouldn’t pick either given the behavior and rhetoric of both. Trump sounds nasty and uses insults, grandstanding, and showmanship to speak directly to the people of his own and foreign nations, interfering in domestic politics to turn public sentiment in a particular way that suits American interests rather than those of the nations in question or their leaders. Chairman Xi talks about non-interference and respecting sovereignty while using economic blackmail and debt trap diplomacy to strongarm weaker nations. From the perspective of a neutral observer, these are both different kinds of undesirable. An intelligent, wise, and competent leader of a neutral nation would be wise to be wary of both, and consider his own people and interests before deciding to what extent its worth pursuing an alliance with either and how to safeguard his or her own nation against the possibility of betrayal. Thus, in the case of individual nations, it will depend on how their national interests align with China vs. the US. A nation like Japan which has centuries of animosity with China is probably not going to come down on the Chinese side, nor is a South Korea vulnerable to attack from the North. A nation like India has considerable disputes with China but few with the US. They are likely to oppose China to some extent but are large and powerful enough on their own that they don’t have to explicitly court America’s favor to do so. They could remain neutral as they have in the past, and I for one wouldn’t blame them for doing so, but depending on their interests, they might decide that the need to secure their interests against their regional rival justifies a more confrontational approach. India is perhaps the only nation that could truly qualify as an ally of the US in the coming multipolar world rather than a client state, though Japan and Australia are also moving in that direction given their increasing focus on military preparedness. It comes back to the reality that the globalist world is falling apart whether anyone likes it or not and that nations will have to look to their own, because there are no international rules that can’t be broken by the results of an election or the whims of an autocrat.
The Ukraine stuff will be a distant memory before any of this matters. If Trump can negotiate a peace deal, and I think he will, none of this will matter. However, Trump poses a bigger problem for conservatives and populists everywhere – he won’t STFU. And worse yet, his nut-job ideas about tariffs are alienating everyone. The best thing for Justin Trudeau and the liberal party in Canada is Trump. The Liberals were dead in the water before Trump’s tariffs. Now we might get another five years of the worst govt in Canadian history because of these frickin tariffs. Mark Carney, Trudeau’s successor, will make it all so much worse, but voters don’t care because they hate Trump and the Conservatives have the stench of Trump, even though they have nothing to do with him. So Canada will get another five years of net zero, five more years of DEI and trans insanity, and five more years massive govt debt and overreach.
You see JV you recognise how actually Trump turns off more and may in fact boost those you don’t like in Canada. Not so smart is it. And he’s doing this elsewhere too.
As regards a ‘peace deal’ – won’t happen. Ceasefire poss. It’ll be like 38th parallel in Korea. 72 years later no ‘peace deal’ as such.
True, but you can’t really blame it on Trump.
I’m a dual citizen, and from conversations with family and friends in the UK and Canada, it seems like neither electorate is awake to the full horror of our predicament, nor likely to wake up any time soon. I can only hope that the people I know aren’t representative.
Here we’re stuck with Labour until 2029. Britain could be unrecognisable by that point.
This doesn’t surprise me. It’s an unfortunate side effect of the current situation. Trump isn’t the president of the UK or Canada. He wasn’t elected by them and doesn’t see that he has any obligation to them but he’ll still make broad statements about those nations which might be positive, negative, threatening, or conciliatory based on either his mood or some plan that is far too complicated for me to decipher. The only obligation that really exists is his obligation to the people of the United States through the Constitution. He was elected to put America first, and is doing exactly that with all his usual grace and subtlety. Said level of grace and subtlety begins to make geopolitics resemble one giant episode of Jerry Springer with himself as the eponymous host sitting there making snide remarks that trigger the guests into attacking him or each other. In this context, that approach was bound to empower whoever his loudest critics were in whatever foreign nation and exact a political price on his allies. Farage stepped into this on his own by being too chummy with Trump when he really should have understood what America first could truly mean for the UK and others in practice. The Canadian conservatives, not so much, but there’s still time for them to step up and assert their own nationalism and determination to oppose Trump. They should honestly counter by making their slogan “Canada First”. It really shouldn’t have to be stated but Canadian parties should put Canada first. It’s an absurd state of affairs we’ve gotten into, but it emphasizes how unusual the unipolar moment was in terms of world history.
More bull from people who don’t understand the history of Ukraine. Neither is some power for the next few years and one time trump will change the fortunes of America for the better and Starmer will bankrupt us so it’s a long game and these polls are really fickle.
Again, please. In English this time.
To quote Steve Bannon: “Its over. They just don’t know it yet”
Majority in US said that in 40.
In fact one might suggest that the reverse is happening with Trump/MAGA – each day the contradictions rebound and the betrayal begins to present itself.
It is quite hilarious when Mr. Starmer is quoted as saying that Ukraine has the “full backing across the United Kingdom”. About the same words that the sock puppet proclaimed before his senility was finally acknowledged. And what has all this “full backing” accomplished, other than making some people extremely wealthy somewhere?
I just listened to President Trump’s recent address to Congress. He’s articulate, funny, and compelling—but most importantly, he simply sounds normal. Everything he talked about was rooted in common sense. Listening closely, you realise just how extreme and distorted the political landscape in the United States had become due to ‘woke’ ideology. Europe, including Britain, finds itself trapped in exactly the same predicament. Extremist, utterly insane, and outright evil ideas have been normalised to such an extent that most people no longer recognise how severe the situation is.
Europe is desperate for a Trump —someone willing to reclaim normality.
Reform UK voters critical of Trump, especially regarding Ukraine, would reconsider if they listened to him. Trump wants peace, not endless conflict. But the UK political climate is so saturated with ‘woke’ talking points that even free thinkers instinctively reject common sense without realising it.
The fact he sounded ‘normal’ to you VJ only confirmatory of what was already apparent.
Covfefe – and ‘windmills cause cancer’ are normal in America ?
Explains a lot
Of all the reasons to be concerned about Trump, British voters choose his approach to Ukraine?!
We’re so thoroughly brainwashed that we might be beyond saving.
It is quite hilarious when Mr. Starmer is quoted as saying that Ukraine has the “full backing across the United Kingdom”. About the same words that the sock puppet proclaimed before his senility was finally acknowledged. And what has all this “full backing” accomplished, other than making some people extremely wealthy somewhere? The CIA plant, who currently leads Ukraine, wants the war to continue as long as it’s with other people’s money. It’s high time this lunacy ends and Russian speaking people’s return to the Russian led government.