Reform ordered to keep calm and carry on as poll shows surge in lead over Labour despite Makerfield candidate's embarrassing tweet revelations

By CHRISTIAN CALGIE, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT-AT-LARGE Published: 19:33, 27 May 2026 | Updated: 19:36, 27 May 2026 A senior Reform UK figure demanded 'calm' from his party today, after a poll showed the party back up to a ten-point lead nationally. Despite a slew of damaging headlines about its Makerfield candidate's online history, the party has surged back into a commanding lead over all other parties, according to FindOutNow. The pollster saw Reform on top with 30%, up one point, while Labour collapsed by three points to 20%. The Tories were up to one point behind Labour on 19%. Meanwhile the Greens were up a sizable three points to 13%, ahead of the Liberal Democrats on 12%. Senior Reform-supporting commentator Tim Montgomerie said the poll was proof that 'everyone in Reform needs to calm down'. 'Much more serious than various unwelcome news events of recent days (like Restore's 7%) has been the headless chicken reactions of some in the party.' Polls suggested that stories about Robert Kenyon's past social media posts have not dampened support for Reform UK More in Common found Restore is back up to a 10 point lead Pro-Reform commentator Tim Montgomery ordered the party not to panic in the wake of the positive poll The positive poll news was overshadowed, however, as yet more comments from Nigel Farage's by-election candidate hit the news. He was today revealed to have accused Brexiteers like Mr Farage of peddling 'nationalistic pish'. In a series of unearthed online comments posted hours after the final Brexit referendum result was declared, Mr Kenyon said Brexit meant Britain had 'shot our economy in the foot' and would now have to 'pick up the pieces'. He accused Brexit campaigners of having 'peddled the nationalistic pish and got [the] working class vote', branding it 'a bit silly'. It comes after he faced criticisms over other comments branded both sexist and pro-Russian. Responding to the latest revelations published by the Telegraph, Mr Kenyon said: 'These comments were made immediately after the referendum vote, nearly a decade ago and long before I entered politics. 'Like millions of ordinary people, I was fed up with a political elite that had stopped listening, stopped caring and treated the public with contempt. 'In the years since, I have become convinced that we made the right decision, despite the same tired establishment trying to block, dilute and delay Brexit in order to pretend it had failed.' Mr Kenyon was also blasted over comments in which he suggested Russia's 2014 invasion of Crimea was justified. The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.