Six months after Labour's landslide election victory, and with another vote not due until 2029, YouGov polling showed that if a general election were held tomorrow 26% of British voters would choose Labour and 25% would vote Reform UK. The Conservatives were on 22%.

The poll is YouGov's first since the July 4 election and showed Reform, which won 14% of the vote last summer, gaining support from the Conservatives and, to a lesser extent, Keir Starmer's Labour Party.

Farage's Reform has only five lawmakers in Britain's 650-seat parliament but after winning more than 4 million votes across the country is seen as a populist challenger to a British system historically dominated by Labour and the Conservatives.

Starmer's Labour, helped into power by voters' frustration with 14 years of Conservative government, has suffered a number of early setbacks including an outcry over ministers accepting freebies and the fallout of a badly received tax-raising budget.

The YouGov poll, which surveyed 2,279 people over the past two days, said only 54% of people who voted Labour in the last election would do so again.

Reform has the backing of Elon Musk, a close ally of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, although the Tesla boss has withdrawn his support for Farage.

Elsewhere in Europe, Musk has also endorsed Germany's right-wing, anti-immigration AfD party ahead of national elections in February.