Reform UK most-supported party among gay and bi men, new poll shows

ThatRobGuy · Tuesday at 2:01 PM

Reform UK most-supported party among gay and bi men, new poll shows

Nigel Farage's far-right Reform UK is the most supported party amongst gay and bisexual men in the UK, a new poll has found.

www.thepinknews.com

Poll: Reform UK is most popular party among gay and bisexual men

Reform UK is now the most popular political party in Britain among gay and bisexual men, according to new polling. New figures from More in Common found that 25% of gay and bisexual men across all age groups back Nigel Farage’s party. That puts Reform six points ahead of the next most popular...

unherd.com

Reform UK is now the most popular political party in Britain among gay and bisexual men, according to new polling.

New figures from More in Common found that 25% of the gay and bisexual men across all age groups back Nigel Farage’s party. That puts Reform six points ahead of the next most popular option, Zack Polanski’s Greens, and seven points ahead of the Labour Party. The pollster also places Reform on 30% of the vote nationally, giving it a 10-point lead over both Labour and the Conservative Party.

The polling by sexuality, carried out at the end of last year but published this week, surveyed almost 9,000 adults across England, Wales and Scotland. As well as its support among gay and bisexual men, Reform is also by far the most popular party among heterosexual males. Of this group, 33% back Farage’s party — 11 points ahead of Labour and 26 ahead of the Greens.

Strikingly, Reform is the most popular choice among heterosexual women, of whom 29% intend to vote for the party.

This should make for a rather interesting discussion, as conventionally speaking (at least here within the US perspective), a far-right populist party would be assumed to be the least popular party among that particular demographic.

Any thoughts as to why this is?

I'll toss out my theory. Immigration from majority Islam countries has been a bigger challenge in Europe than it's been in the US. Both in terms of quantity (relative to the existing population size) as well as on the assimilation aspect. I don't think it's any big secret that that particular ideology arguably has the most regressive track record on those kinds of issues. The Reform party over there (from what I've read and observed) seems to be the only party that's pushing back hard on it.

durangodawood · Tuesday at 2:51 PM

ThatRobGuy said:
......
New figures from More in Common found that 25% of the gay and bisexual men across all age groups back Nigel Farage’s party. That puts Reform six points ahead of the next most popular option, Zack Polanski’s Greens, and seven points ahead of the Labour Party. The pollster also places Reform on 30% of the vote nationally, giving it a 10-point lead over both Labour and the Conservative Party.
......
Any thoughts as to why this is?

So gay men back "Reform" less than the national average? Ok.

And its miles from a majority. Perhaps "Reform" is one of a kind minority, while Greens, Labor, etc split the more moderate majority.

Now, back to why any gay guys support reform (at less than the national average) yeah it could well be a justified fear of conservative Islamic attitudes. Thats a guess tho, being niether gay nor British.

ThatRobGuy · Tuesday at 6:05 PM

durangodawood said:
So gay men back "Reform" less than the national average? Ok.

And its miles from a majority. Perhaps "Reform" is one of a kind minority, while Greens, Labor, etc split the more moderate majority.

Now, back to why any gay guys support reform (at less than the national average) yeah it could well be a justified fear of conservative Islamic attitudes. Thats a guess tho, being niether gay nor British.

It's not a pure majority, but it's more than the other parties are getting.

For lack of a better comparison, it'd be like if here in the US, people in the anti-gun camp started backing the libertarian party at a higher percentage than the Greens, Democrats, and Republicans, it would seem oddly out of sorts with what one would expect.

At which point, one would have to look for extraneous policy proposals outside of that issue to figure out what the appeal is.

Obviously with our system here, people tend to congregate around one of the two major parties and end up adopting the other views of that party. For instance, you don't really see too many people who are staunchly pro-choice, but against gay marriage, and you don't really see people who are staunchly pro-gun, but want us to have socialized healthcare.

The parliamentary system tends to allow for a little more diversity of thought due to how much coalition building is required.

durangodawood · Tuesday at 6:15 PM

ThatRobGuy said:
It's not a pure majority, but it's more than the other parties are getting.

For lack of a better comparison, it'd be like if here in the US, people in the anti-gun camp started backing the libertarian party at a higher percentage than the Greens, Democrats, and Republicans, it would seem oddly out of sorts with what one would expect.

Does "Reform" hold policies antagonistic to gay peoples freedom there?

ThatRobGuy · Tuesday at 6:27 PM

durangodawood said:
Does "Reform" hold policies antagonistic to gay peoples freedom there?

It's my understanding that they do to a degree (if the facebook posts I see have any merit to them at all)

However, if they're the only party that takes on an entity that the group in question feels has the potential to be even more antagonistic (which I noted in my original theory), that could explain it.

GoldenBoy89 · Tuesday at 7:29 PM

I’m not sure but I think the UK’s right wing is more about British nationalism and specifically euro-skepticism than the US’s much more sexual purity obsessed evangelical right wing. I think in general, Europeans have a much more liberal attitude towards sex and same sex than we do here in the US.

ThatRobGuy · Tuesday at 8:32 PM

GoldenBoy89 said:
I’m not sure but I think the UK’s right wing is more about British nationalism and specifically euro-skepticism than the US’s much more sexual purity obsessed evangelical right wing. I think in general, Europeans have a much more liberal attitude towards sex and same sex than we do here in the US.

They are to the left of us on certain social issues as a whole (their Overton window is to the left of ours)

But that particular party's leader (Farage) has made comments suggesting that he didn't agree with gay marriage. He publicly said that he thought gay marriage was "wrong" on a televised interview in response to the Britain legalizing SSM.

Show me the receipts: Nigel Farage's history of LGBTQ-related public statements revisited

Let us not underestimate the very real threat of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage one day becoming prime minister

www.attitude.co.uk

His rhetoric mirrored some of that we'd expect republicans here to say about it.

If, in the US, the GOP was leading by 6-7 points over the Democratic party among gay men, that would be a "sound the alarm" situation over at the DNC headquarters and cause them to reflect on their position on other prevalent issues.

If a cohort of voters have stronger support numbers for a party that says "we don't think you should be allowed to get married" than the party(s) that go out of their way to be seen as an "ally", that means they're doing something seriously out of bounds on some other unrelated issue.

If an animal rights activist was polling worse among vegans than a guy who owns a steakhouse, that animal rights activist should want to know why...

Hans Blaster · 2026-06-03T16:58:11-0500

ThatRobGuy said:
Reform UK most-supported party among gay and bi men, new poll shows

Nigel Farage's far-right Reform UK is the most supported party amongst gay and bisexual men in the UK, a new poll has found.

www.thepinknews.com

Poll: Reform UK is most popular party among gay and bisexual men

Reform UK is now the most popular political party in Britain among gay and bisexual men, according to new polling. New figures from More in Common found that 25% of gay and bisexual men across all age groups back Nigel Farage’s party. That puts Reform six points ahead of the next most popular...

unherd.com

Reform UK is now the most popular political party in Britain among gay and bisexual men, according to new polling.

New figures from More in Common found that 25% of the gay and bisexual men across all age groups back Nigel Farage’s party. That puts Reform six points ahead of the next most popular option, Zack Polanski’s Greens, and seven points ahead of the Labour Party. The pollster also places Reform on 30% of the vote nationally, giving it a 10-point lead over both Labour and the Conservative Party.

The polling by sexuality, carried out at the end of last year but published this week, surveyed almost 9,000 adults across England, Wales and Scotland. As well as its support among gay and bisexual men, Reform is also by far the most popular party among heterosexual males. Of this group, 33% back Farage’s party — 11 points ahead of Labour and 26 ahead of the Greens.

Strikingly, Reform is the most popular choice among heterosexual women, of whom 29% intend to vote for the party.

This should make for a rather interesting discussion, as conventionally speaking (at least here within the US perspective), a far-right populist party would be assumed to be the least popular party among that particular demographic.

Any thoughts as to why this is?

I'll toss out my theory. Immigration from majority Islam countries has been a bigger challenge in Europe than it's been in the US. Both in terms of quantity (relative to the existing population size) as well as on the assimilation aspect. I don't think it's any big secret that that particular ideology arguably has the most regressive track record on those kinds of issues. The Reform party over there (from what I've read and observed) seems to be the only party that's pushing back hard on it.

Hmm. Maybe this is because "Reform" is not built on evangelical social values, but on xenophobia.

Nithavela · 2026-06-03T17:06:29-0500

Some people vote against their interest when they believe that they can hurt those they dislike more than they themselves are hurt.

ThatRobGuy · 2026-06-04T06:51:36-0500

Hans Blaster said:
Hmm. Maybe this is because "Reform" is not built on evangelical social values, but on xenophobia.

Nithavela said:
Some people vote against their interest when they believe that they can hurt those they dislike more than they themselves are hurt.

I don't know if the concerns gay men would have with a lot of Middle Eastern refugees being brought in would qualify as your stereotypical "xenophobia" or even a desire to "hurt" anyone else as much as it would be a "lesser of two evils" kind of decision making process.

As I noted, based on the polling as well as the report from the MIT link I posted earlier, the assimilation challenges in places like the UK and France are different (more challenging) than the here in the US.

Moral Issues Divide Westerners From Muslims in the West

On a spectrum of moral issues, residents of key Western nations and Muslim populations in three major European cities differ most in their views of homosexuality, abortion, pornography, and sex outside of marriage.

news.gallup.com

https://www.cnn.com/2016/04/11/europe/britain-muslims-survey/index.html

I think a group having the particular concern of:
"Hey, there's this particular group, where 96% say my relationships are morally unacceptable, and 52% go as far as saying it should be banned, and the other 3 parties are seemingly trying to open the flood gates to allow more people from that particular group into the country" doesn't fall into the stereotypical "I just hate them because they're different. Period" types of xenophobia we're perhaps more used to seeing among some in the US.

I would imagine for some gay voters in the UK, strict immigration limits on people from Islamic countries are seen as protecting some of the liberal social norms they depend on, even if Reform's own record on LGBTQ rights are mixed.

Stopped_lurking · 2026-06-04T07:30:35-0500

ThatRobGuy said:
Reform UK most-supported party among gay and bi men, new poll shows

Nigel Farage's far-right Reform UK is the most supported party amongst gay and bisexual men in the UK, a new poll has found.

www.thepinknews.com

Poll: Reform UK is most popular party among gay and bisexual men

Reform UK is now the most popular political party in Britain among gay and bisexual men, according to new polling. New figures from More in Common found that 25% of gay and bisexual men across all age groups back Nigel Farage’s party. That puts Reform six points ahead of the next most popular...

unherd.com

Reform UK is now the most popular political party in Britain among gay and bisexual men, according to new polling.

New figures from More in Common found that 25% of the gay and bisexual men across all age groups back Nigel Farage’s party. That puts Reform six points ahead of the next most popular option, Zack Polanski’s Greens, and seven points ahead of the Labour Party. The pollster also places Reform on 30% of the vote nationally, giving it a 10-point lead over both Labour and the Conservative Party.

The polling by sexuality, carried out at the end of last year but published this week, surveyed almost 9,000 adults across England, Wales and Scotland. As well as its support among gay and bisexual men, Reform is also by far the most popular party among heterosexual males. Of this group, 33% back Farage’s party — 11 points ahead of Labour and 26 ahead of the Greens.

Strikingly, Reform is the most popular choice among heterosexual women, of whom 29% intend to vote for the party.

This should make for a rather interesting discussion, as conventionally speaking (at least here within the US perspective), a far-right populist party would be assumed to be the least popular party among that particular demographic.

Any thoughts as to why this is?

I'll toss out my theory. Immigration from majority Islam countries has been a bigger challenge in Europe than it's been in the US. Both in terms of quantity (relative to the existing population size) as well as on the assimilation aspect. I don't think it's any big secret that that particular ideology arguably has the most regressive track record on those kinds of issues. The Reform party over there (from what I've read and observed) seems to be the only party that's pushing back hard on it.

So gay and bisexual men and women are less inclined to vote for Reform than straight men and straight women (25% vs 12 % vs 33% vs 29%). So whatever else is found to be a reason to express support for Reform, it is reduced by being gay or bisexual. There are obviously gay and bisexual men who are ok with Reform's policies. This is a nothing discussion.

Excel file can be found here:

Polling Tables Archive - More In Common

www.moreincommon.org.uk

Scroll down to here:

Parties have whole party programs and election manifestos, when they go to elections.

Hans Blaster · 2026-06-04T09:16:21-0500

ThatRobGuy said:
I don't know if the concerns gay men would have with a lot of Middle Eastern refugees being brought in would qualify as your stereotypical "xenophobia" or even a desire to "hurt" anyone else as much as it would be a "lesser of two evils" kind of decision making process.

As I noted, based on the polling as well as the report from the MIT link I posted earlier, the assimilation challenges in places like the UK and France are different (more challenging) than the here in the US.

Moral Issues Divide Westerners From Muslims in the West

On a spectrum of moral issues, residents of key Western nations and Muslim populations in three major European cities differ most in their views of homosexuality, abortion, pornography, and sex outside of marriage.

news.gallup.com

https://www.cnn.com/2016/04/11/europe/britain-muslims-survey/index.html

I think a group having the particular concern of:
"Hey, there's this particular group, where 96% say my relationships are morally unacceptable, and 52% go as far as saying it should be banned, and the other 3 parties are seemingly trying to open the flood gates to allow more people from that particular group into the country" doesn't fall into the stereotypical "I just hate them because they're different. Period" types of xenophobia we're perhaps more used to seeing among some in the US.

I would imagine for some gay voters in the UK, strict immigration limits on people from Islamic countries are seen as protecting some of the liberal social norms they depend on, even if Reform's own record on LGBTQ rights are mixed.

I'm not sure what is going on here. Perhaps interpreting data is not your thing.

Your original post show 25% support for "Reform" from gay men and 30% for the whole population. Clearly gay men were not more enthusiastic about "Reform" than the whole population (the error of measurement has to be fairly large). I offered a reasonable explanation ("Reform" not like US X-Nat politics) which fit with what I have observed over the years from UK polyticks.

Now @Stopped_lurking has posted a full table of party support for male/female, gay/straight and we can see that the sample size is small (as expected) leading to potentially large sampling errors, but also that gay men have different politics than straight men, just not radically so.

I asked the Googs and it tossed up this quote:

The Reform Party believes that social and cultural issues (i.e., abortion, gay marriage, end-of-life decisions, and similar topics) should not be our focus as a party. Reform Party members and candidates may hold their own positions, with the understanding that they do not speak for the party on these issues.

To be consistent with our desire for a limited and well-focused government, the Reform Party does not believe that laws and regulations should dictate medical decisions, how relationships are formed, or the activities of groups or individuals that do not infringe on the rights of non-participants.

from the party's own page:

Social and Cultural Issues - Reform Party National Committee

platform-committee

reformparty.org

A whole thread that could have been avoided by reading the source of your original post and doing the smallest amount of searching.

ThatRobGuy · 2026-06-04T12:19:15-0500

Hans Blaster said:
I'm not sure what is going on here. Perhaps interpreting data is not your thing.

Your original post show 25% support for "Reform" from gay men and 30% for the whole population. Clearly gay men were not more enthusiastic about "Reform" than the whole population (the error of measurement has to be fairly large). I offered a reasonable explanation ("Reform" not like US X-Nat politics) which fit with what I have observed over the years from UK polyticks.

That's not what I was highlighting, what I was highlighting was that 25% supported Reform, while only a smaller percentage support the Greens and Labour.

durangodawood · 2026-06-04T12:36:32-0500

ThatRobGuy said:
That's not what I was highlighting, what I was highlighting was that 25% supported Reform, while only a smaller percentage support the Greens and Labour.

Consistent with the rest of the population, except even less so.

If you get my meaning.

And it seems like "Reform" is not nearly as antagonistic to sexual identity issues as the American right wing is here. So there's more lattitude to engage in nationalism if thats your thing.

Stopped_lurking · 2026-06-04T12:41:17-0500

ThatRobGuy said:
That's not what I was highlighting, what I was highlighting was that 25% supported Reform, while only a smaller percentage support the Greens and Labour.

It only shows that gay and bisexual men are quite alike straight men when it comes to expressing an intention to vote for Reform. It has nothing to do with them being gay or bisexual, as evidenced by gay and bisexual women. Just as for gay and bisexual women, gay and bisexual men are less like to report an intention to vote for Reform. Being gay or bisexual does reduce the propensity to report an intention to vote for Reform, regardless of sex.

Also 75% did not support Reform.

Your proposed mechanism is not supported by the data.

Reform UK most-supported party among gay and bi men, new poll shows

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