Badenoch more popular than Farage for first time in a year after handling of Jenrick’s Reform defection, poll shows
Kemi Badenoch’s approval rating has surpassed Nigel Farage’s for the first time in more than a year after he dramatically sacked Robert Jenrick for planning a switch to Reform England, a new poll shows.
The Conservative leader has kicked out his former shadow justice secretary from his party, accusing him of planning to leave the Conservative Party “in a way designed to be as damaging as possible”.
He joined Reform hours later, dealing a sharp blow to his former party when he was introduced by Mr Farage as the latest person to leave the Conservative Party.
But a new Commons poll, conducted from the day after Mr Jenrick was sacked to Monday, shows half of Britons support decisive action from Ms Badenoch; Even 45 percent of Reform voters say he has handled leave well.
The poll found that his net approval rating rose to -11, the highest level since December 2024, just a month after he became leader.
He also overtook Mr Farage, who was at -13 for the first time since the same month.
The public are also three times more likely (34 to 11 per cent) to say Mr Jenrick’s sacking reflects well rather than badly on Ms Badenoch.
By contrast, only 14 per cent of those polled said the debate reflected well on Mr Jenrick, while 37 per cent said it reflected badly on Mr Jenrick.
The pollsters also identified what they described as the potential ‘cost of separation’. More than half (56 per cent) said Conservative politicians had left the party out of personal interest rather than principle, while a surprising seven in ten Conservative voters said they would not vote for their MP if they switched to Reform.
Earlier this month, polling guru Sir John Curtice wrote: Independent About Ms Badenoch’s rising popularity following her well-regarded party conference speech and her response in the Budget.
“This is the main reason why the average level of support for Reform has fallen below 30 percent for the first time since the party’s success in taking control of 20 provincial councils last May,” he wrote.
However, despite the good news for Ms Badenoch, there was also bad news for her party; Reform UK won the battle to represent the ‘Right’ of British politics, with 35 percent of the vote, ahead of the Conservative Party, which received 29 percent.
