A Tory minister insisted he was “not worried” about the electoral threat posed by Reform UK despite a new poll putting the Conservatives just two points ahead of Nigel Farage’s party. 

A YouGov survey carried out between June 3-4 put the Tories in second place on 19 per cent with Reform narrowly trailing on 17 per cent. Labour was in first with 40 per cent. 

Bim Afolami, the economic secretary to the Treasury, was asked during an interview on Sky News how worried he was about Reform and he replied: “Honestly? I’m not particularly worried about Reform. Should I tell you why? I’m not worried about Reform because they don’t have a plan for reforming anything.”

He added: “It’s easy to shout from the sidelines, if you’re Nigel Farage or anybody else, to shout and say ‘all of the parties, all of the established parties, they’re rubbish’. 

“It’s easy to do that. They haven’t put out a plan for anything. Frankly, at least in the days of Ukip, they actually had a policy. These guys don’t even have a policy.”

Mr Farage responded to the YouGov poll by tweeting: “We’re just getting started.”

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