Labour has fallen to fourth place behind the Greens in a new poll just weeks before the crunch local elections.
The YouGov survey of 2,367 people found that Reform UK was on top at an unchanged 24 per cent, followed by the Tories on 19 per cent. The Greens were a close third with 18 per cent, ahead of Labour on 17 per cent.
With the local and devolved election campaign underway and Sir Keir Starmer’s future as prime minister tagged to the outcome, the results of the survey could not have come at a worse time.
It follows one projection suggesting Labour could lose as many as 1,700 council seats on 7 May while potentially being pushed into third place in the Welsh and Scottish parliaments.
Sir Ed Davey’s Lib Dems were left marooned in fifth place on 13 per cent as the party struggles to resonate with the public despite having 72 MPs.
Meanwhile, Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain party, which he set up in the wake of his fallout with Nigel Farage and Reform, is included for the first time with 4 per cent.
The polling appears to underline a fractured political landscape, with the UK seemingly on course for a hung parliament at the next election.
Greens leader Zack Polanski has hailed the findings as proof that they “are the only party with momentum.”
He said: “All over the country now, people are increasingly seeing the Greens as the progressive choice to stop Reform.
“We are the only party with a plan to end the affordability crisis, by lowering bills and making housing affordable and taking the choices that Labour refuses to make, to put people rather than corporate interests, first.”
Polling expert Lord Hayward said: “This confirms what we are seeing and is bad news for Labour. They are being squeezed by Reform in some parts of the country but are also really losing out to the Greens in other parts.
“It is not just student votes or a London phenomena, the Greens are picking up in large parts of the country with similar profiles to London.”
He added: “This is also bad news for the Lib Dems. They were traditionally the party of protest but now they are losing out to the Greens too who appear to have replaced them in that role.”
But polling guru Professor Sir John Curtice was sceptical, noting that different polling companies are still coming up with a variety of results.
He said: “There is a substantial difference between pollsters in their estimate of Green support, with YouGov one of those that puts it on the high side. On average (for what it is worth) Labour are currently on 19 and the Greens on 16.”
YouGov has come under fire from Mr Farage and senior members of Reform who claim that they have underplayed their support with the public compared to other polling companies.
On average, YouGov has been four points below others when polling Reform support. But it has reflected what appears to be a slip in support for the party since its high point of 35 per cent last year.
