Nigel Farage’s Reform party has overtaken the Conservatives in a poll for the first time.
The Tories were pushed into third in the survey, by YouGov.
The findings comes as a blow to Rishi Sunak and risks triggering panic among many Tory MPs.
The poll results were released minutes before Mr Farage was due to take part in a 7-way debate on ITV, with Conservative cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt, among others.
The poll found support for Reform had increased by two points to 19 per cent while the Tories were unchanged on 18 per cent.
Labour was still in the lead on 37, while the Liberal Democrats were down one point at 14 per cent, according to the survey for The Times.
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