How Farage’s Reform seduced Gen Z: ’Their manifesto is like a wishlist’

Nathan Hobbs has been arguing with his sister about politics lately. She is 22, has a progressive outlook and, like most young voters, is likely to vote either Labour or Liberal Democrat at the General Election. Nathan, a 19-year-old student, disagrees with her and doesn’t fit the mold of much of his peer group either. He is planning to vote Reform UK on July 4. “There’s a real split [between us],” he says of the siblings’ divergence in political opinion. “She dislikes Nigel Farage.” Nathan, meanwhile, does not. The undergraduate from Brentwood in Essex is part of a small but noticeable cohort of first-time voters giving their support to Farage’s hard-right party. According to Telegraph analysis, data from four major pollsters suggests as many as 16 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds intend to vote Reform next week. While support for the party among this cohort is dwarfed by the numbers planning to vote Labour (47 per cent), young voters’ support for Reform now appears to be as strong as their supp