Nigel Farage’s uncompromising assault on Britain’s climate commitments is facing pushback from within his own party’s expanding support base, with polling revealing that younger Reform UK voters are markedly more sympathetic to net zero and renewable energy than their leader.
The former Ukip and Brexit Party chief has dismissed the UK’s 2050 net zero target as “complete and utter madness”, while his deputy, Richard Tice – also Reform’s energy spokesperson – has branded the renewables industry a “massive con”. Their manifesto pitch includes scrapping the legal net zero goal, ending subsidies for green power, taxing renewable developers and even levying farmers who install solar panels.
But new research by More in Common, shared with The i Paper, suggests this hardline rhetoric is increasingly out of step with the party’s own voters, particularly those who have joined its ranks since the 2024 general election.
Among new supporters, opinion on net zero is finely balanced: 30 per cent support ditching the target, but 35 per cent oppose the move and another 35 per cent sit on the fence. Support for renewables is stronger still, with 56 per cent of newer recruits and 50 per cent of 2024 voters saying they view investment in green energy as positive. The party’s proposal to tax farmers for solar panels finds scant backing, with just 24 per cent of new supporters and 29 per cent of existing voters in favour.
The findings underscore a potential electoral fault line. Farage’s populist climate scepticism may energise his base in some constituencies, but risks capping Reform’s broader appeal at a moment when the party is seeking to woo disaffected Conservative and Labour voters alike.
Senior Reform figures have doubled down on their position, with Dame Andrea Jenkyns, the party’s mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, recently claiming she did not believe climate change “was a thing”. Yet nationwide, support for renewable energy remains overwhelming. A separate YouGov survey for Friends of the Earth found 80 per cent of Britons favour expanding renewable infrastructure. Even among Reform’s own voters – the most sceptical segment – almost two-thirds backed greater investment in the sector.
Political strategists warn the dissonance between leadership and grassroots could prove costly. “The danger for Reform is that its climate policy becomes a ceiling, not a springboard,” one senior campaign adviser told Business Matters. “If they want to be more than a protest party, they’ll have to close the gap between rhetoric and reality.”
Paul Jones
Harvard alumni and former New York Times journalist. Editor of Business Matters for over 15 years, the UKs largest business magazine. I am also head of Capital Business Media’s automotive division working for clients such as Red Bull Racing, Honda, Aston Martin and Infiniti.
