UK's Labour Party catches Reform in polls after Burnham becomes PM
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Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham arrives for a National Economic Council meeting at No 10 North at Heron House on July 24, 2026 in Manchester, England. Christopher Furlong/Pool via REUTERS
By Alistair Smout
LONDON, July 28 (Reuters) - Britain's governing Labour Party has caught up with, or overtaken, Nigel Farage's populist Reform UK in the polls, according to three different surveys which showed a bounce for new leader Andy Burnham a week after he became prime minister.
Farage's anti-immigrant Reform party had led nearly every opinion poll for more than a year and gained hundreds of seats in local and regional votes in May, prompting Labour to remove the unpopular Keir Starmer and install Burnham, a more charismatic former mayor, as prime minister on July 20.
He spent his first week as leader looking to give voters "breathing space" on the cost of living - removing a tax on energy bills, capping bus fares and cutting taxes for pubs and bars.
A poll by Survation found that Labour was on 26% after Burnham's first week in office, overtaking Reform on 24%. The week before Starmer announced his resignation in June, Labour had been on just 19%, with Reform on 27%.
Survation Chief Executive Damian Lyons Lowe said the poll was "the highest Survation has had Labour since 3 June 2025, and the first Labour polling lead since 3 May 2025".
Other pollsters reported a similar pattern. On Monday, More In Common showed Labour on 28% ahead of Reform on 24%, while YouGov had Reform and Labour tied at 22%, with Labour up 6 points since May and Reform at their lowest level of support since March 2025.
YouGov also said more Britons saw Burnham as a better prime minister than Farage, or any other major party leader.
As Labour enjoys a bounce, Reform has faced questions over whether gifts from wealthy backers were properly declared, which Farage has angrily decried as a bid by the establishment to discredit him.
Asked about the bounce in the polls on Monday, Burnham said he would not get "carried away" but was pleased to have "made a start where hopefully I've connected with people".
(Reporting by Alistair Smout;Editing by Alison Williams)
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