𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Mr Farage sparked backlash by calling for the British people to respond with “pure, cold rage” to the student’s death, who was handcuffed as he lay dying by police who wrongly believed he had carried out a racist assault in December.

His accusations of “a two-tier culture … where the rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities” were condemned as “unforgivable” by Sir Keir Starmer.

While Mr Farage’s critics said the comments violated the wishes of Mr Nowak’s family that his case not be used to whip up division, Reform MP Robert Jenrick insisted he had “simply shown leadership in setting out the course of action that now needs to be taken to make sure that we fix this problem and treat everybody equally before the law”.

Mr Farage is also currently under investigation by Parliament’s standards commissioner over whether he should have registered a £5million gift he received from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne in 2024 as an interest. He has variously claimed the gift was to pay for his personal security and that it was a reward for his years of campaigning for Brexit.

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Despite the heightened scrutiny, the Reform leader is still a major contender to become the next Prime Minister, with polling this week showing that his party is “eating the Tories for breakfast”.

Sir John Curtice, senior research fellow at National Centre of Social Research (NatCen) and co-author of its British Social Attitudes survey, said Reform voters were not simply moving away from the two traditional parties as a protest vote but because of deep ideological identification.

The survey showed that Reform’s support demographic mirrors that of the Leave campaign in the 2016 referendum, including 40% of those whose highest educational qualification is less than an A-level, compared to 9% of graduates, and 27% of those aged 55+, compared to 18% of those aged 18-34.

Reform voters were also found to be more unhappy about the state of the country and their personal circumstances and to lean conservative on cultural issues and be less supportive of welfare provision.

Sir John said: “Voters haven’t swung towards Reform simply because of dissatisfaction with ailing public services and economic stagnation. The party’s supporters are deeply ideological and have a level of emotional attachment that neither Labour or the Conservatives have managed to inspire in voters for decades.”

“The roots of the party’s support lie in the vote to leave the EU, a vote that was motivated by cultural questions of national identity, immigration and pride in British history,” he added. “Reform has effectively absorbed the coalition of voters that voted in 2019 for Boris Johnson to ‘get Brexit done’.”