More voters aged between 18 and 30 voted for Nigel Farage’s Reform Party than for the Conservatives in the general election, research has claimed.
In a YouGov poll of 35,000 voters, 9.5% of those under 30 who were surveyed backed the populist party, while just 8% backed the Tories.
It means Reform is the one of the most popular parties after Labour, Lib Dems and the Green Party for this age bracket.
The Liberal Democrats had 16% of the vote from the under 30s, while the Greens secured 18% from 18-24 year olds but was slightly less popular with the 25-29 year olds, where it won 12% of the vote.
Labour was the clear winner among young voters, bagging 43% of the vote for all under 30s.
As YouGov notes, the chances of people voting Conservative increases as they age – rising from 8% for under 30s to 46% of the electorate aged 70 and over.
It’s not entirely clear if Reform will disrupt this trend in the long-term, after its first batch of MPs was elected earlier this month.
But, YouGov found the median age of a Tory voter is now 63; for Reform it is 56; for the Lib Dems it is 48; for Labour it’s 46; and for the Greens it is 39.
Still, the findings come after Farage told The Daily T on Tuesday that “something very big is happening” among Gen Z voters.
There has been a concern among Tory corners that Reform siphoned the right-wing vote off the Conservatives – and suggestions that the parties should unite.
But the More In Common think tank and UCL Policy Lab found earlier this month that only 31% of those who backed Farage’s populist party said they would have otherwise backed the Tories.