Restore Britain running in the Makerfield by-election is “good news” for Andy Burnham, Britain’s top pollster has said. Professor Sir John Curtice said Rupert Lowe’s right-wing party was making life “much more difficult” for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
It comes as a new poll by Survation put Labour in the lead for the crunch ballot with 43% and Reform just behind on 40%, but Restore Britain was third with 7%.
Sir John said the by-election, which the Greater Manchester Mayor is using in a bid to return to Westminster to challenge the PM, is “on an absolute knife-edge”.
He told The Telegraph: “Reform has managed, evidently, from looking at the transfer numbers, to squeeze the Tory vote.
“But Restore Britain is intervening and making life much more difficult for Reform. On the one hand, so far as Burnham is concerned, the intervention of Restore Britain is definitely good news.
“On the other hand, it also shows that if Reform are able to squeeze this Restore vote – because they’ve lost one in eight of their 2024 voters to Restore – then, even if this poll is accurate, Reform could still overtake Burnham.”
