Megapoll finds Nigel Farage on track for No10 as Labour crisis deepens: Reform could get 311 MPs at an election - with Labour losing more than 250 and the Tories slumping into FOURTH
The scale of Labour's crisis was laid bare today as a megapoll found Nigel Farage on track for Downing Street.
Reform would make the biggest surge in British political history if an election was held now, according to the YouGov research.
Although the party would be slightly short of an overall majority with 311 MPs, that would almost certainly see Mr Farage become PM.
Meanwhile, Labour would lose more than 250 seats on its current tally - and the Tories would slump into fourth behind the Lib Dems, with just 45 MPs.
The huge survey used a technique known as MRP to project results for all constituencies, based on the characteristics of their voters.
Although Reform would be slightly short of an overall majority with 311 MPs, that would almost certainly see Mr Farage become PM
It found Yvette Cooper, Wes Streeting, Angela Rayner, Ed Miliband, Bridget Phillipson, and Lisa Nandy face being among the big-name casualties.
For the Conservatives it would be their worst result ever, stretching back to the formation of the predecessor Tory Party in the 1670s.
Robert Jenrick, Priti Patel, James Cleverly and Mel Stride are seen as losing their seats in the meltdown.
Reform's net gain of 306 seats would be easily the biggest increase for a party between two general elections.
Technically 326 MPs are needed for an overall majority - but with the Speaker and Sinn Fein MPs not participating in votes the real bar is lower.
The YouGov findings are based on national vote shares of 27 per cent for Reform, 21 per cent for Labour, 17 per cent for the Tories, and 15 per cent for the Lib Dems.
The Greens were on 11 per cent, the SNP on 3 per cent and Plaid 1 per cent.
However, some other polls have shown an even bigger advantage for Reform.
Labour would lose more than 250 seats - and the Tories would slump into fourth behind the Lib Dems, with just 45 MP
Addressing a 'global progressives' summit in London today, Sir Keir acknowledged Labour was struggling.
He insisted the next election will be an 'open fight' with Reform UK.
The Prime Minister said: 'We're going to face a very different election next time to any of the elections we fought in the United Kingdom for a very, very long time.
'That's why… I want this to be out as an open fight between Labour and Reform, and I'll be majoring on this in my conference speech next week.'
He said many centre-right parties in Europe have 'withered on the vine' and the same is happening in the UK.
Sir Keir said: 'The choice before the electorate here of the next election is not going to be the traditional Labour versus Conservative.'
He added that his party was 'battling with repairing the damage that was done under the last government which was huge' and 'rebuilding in a way which embraces and takes on the battle for the soul of the country'.
Appearing on a panel at the summit after Sir Keir, Rachel Reeves conceded there was a 'compelling' argument that immigration had 'depressed' living standards - but insisted it was not correct.
Instead she blamed the Tories and factors such as the Ukraine war.
Ms Reeves said: 'That makes economic policy, I think, as well, quite hard, because when I talk about some difficult decisions and the trade-offs, there are some people who will say, 'well, you know, actually there's some very simple things you could do, close the borders, don't let people in, and therefore we have more money for the things we want'.'
She added: 'That is obviously very simplistic and it's wrong.'
