Reform UK is "more connected" as a party on the issue of immigration than the current Labour Government and the Conservatives, it has been claimed.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has faced widespread criticism for his lacklustre approach to tackling immigration after the party scrapped the Tory-made Rwanda plan on day one in office.
In a bid to tackling the surging numbers, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has pledged a large-scale crack down and promised to deport more than 14,000 migrants by the end of 2024.
However, new polling from JL Partners has revealed that more than one in four Labour voters would consider voting for Reform UK in the next election.
Keir Starmer has pledged to crack down on illegal migration by the end of 2024
PA
26 percent of those who voted for Labour in their landslide General Election would now "seriously consider or consider" voting for Nigel Farage's party.
With the Conservatives also losing out on millions of British voters to Reform UK, former MEP Patrick O'Flynn claimed that former Tory voters would have "stayed at home" in this year's General Election, had Reform not been on the ballot.
Speaking to GB News, O'Flynn said: "I think many of those people who voted Reform perhaps would have voted Conservative in 2019, but weren't going to vote Conservative come hell or high water at the last election.
"Many more of them will probably have stayed at home if Reform wasn't on the ballot this year."
Reform UK has seen a surge in popularity following July's General Election
PA
When asked by host Olivia Ultey if the Conservatives can claw back voters in time for the next election, O'Flynn explained that the party itself is split, which is "unattractive" to prospective voters.
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O'Flynn said: "I think the Conservatives's fundamental problem is they're split around 60 per cent One Nation and maybe 40 per cent more of a traditional, pro-sovereignty element.
"And if you're asking millions of people who voted Reform and many millions more to put their trust in a party, they're not really going to be attracted to a party who has only 60 per cent of its parliamentary presence."
Turning the discussion to immigration, O'Flynn claimed that the two main parties are not connected on the issue, unlike Reform.
He told GB News: "If you look at Reform, they certainly at the moment would be the party that's connected on immigration control.
Patrick O'Flynn says Conservative voters would have 'stayed home' this year if Reform were not on the ballot
GB News
"But they have limitations too. Do they really have a properly worked out policy platform? Are they more of a kind of insurgency rather than any party that could lead a country?"
When asked by Olivia who he believes out of the list of Tory leadership hopefuls would be best to tackle illegal migration, O'Flynn claimed "none of them" would be able to deal with the "enormous scale" issue.
O'Flynn claimed: "If you look back on the 14 years of Conservative led governments, you would probably have to say that none of them are.
"Because of the enormous scale of immigration, both legal and illegal, which the Conservatives presided in flagrant breach of their promises."
