Reform's Zia Yusuf Launches Extraordinary Attack On YouGov As Party Stalls In Polls

A senior Reform UK official has launched an outspoken attack on YouGov as the party stalls in the opinion polls.

Zia Yusuf, Reform’s home affairs spokesman, said the pollster “will lose all credibility and their business will die” if the party outperforms expectations in May’s elections.

His comments came after YouGov said it would publish more data about how it reaches its voting intention (VI) figures.

The company’s polls have tended to show support for Reform at a lower level than other pollsters, with their most recent one putting the party on 23%.

In a post on X, Yusuf said: “YouGov has lost a stunning 89% of its value in just over 4 years. Now they’ve stuck their neck out to prop up the cadaver of the Tory Party.

“If Reform wins more than 23% of the vote share in May, their polls will lose all credibility and their business will die.”

His comments come just days after Reform leader Nigel Farage also accused YouGov of trying to downplay his party’s popularity.

He said the pollster was “using bizarre adjustments to suppress the true figures”.

Farage added: “No wonder their share price has fallen by over 80 percent in recent year.”

But Patrick English, YouGov’s head of elections, denied Reform’s accusations.

Posting on X, he said: “For avoidance of any doubt. No, we at YouGov have not changed any methods in response to Farage or Reform.

“What we have agreed to do moving forward is publish an extra question in all our VI tables. And we never made/make ‘tactical voting adjustments’ to our headline VI.”

According to Keiran Pedley of rival pollsters Ipsos, Reform’s support has “clearly fallen over the past six months”.

In a post on X, he showed that they have support for the party on 28%, down from 34% in September.

A YouGov spokesperson said: “We are not changing our methodology or results, which accurately predicted Reform’s vote at the last general election.”