Nigel Farage's Reform UK party has overtaken Labour for the first time in a national opinion poll.

The YouGov survey put Mr Farage's insurgent party on 25 percentage points, which was one ahead of Labour and four clear of the Conservatives.

In a further blow for the Tories, the poll for Sky News, taken on Sunday and Monday, also found that nearly one in four who voted Conservative in the election would now back Reform.

But in a sign that Reform is also eating into the Labour vote, the poll found that only 60 per cent of people who backed Labour in July would do so now, with 18 per cent saying they would either definitely or probably not support the party.

The poll, conducted by YouGov, showed that if a general election were held tomorrow, 25 per cent of British voters would choose Reform, 24 per cent would pick Labour, and 21 per cent would vote for the Conservatives.

Reform's one-point lead over Labour in the poll - which surveyed 2,465 people over February 2 and 3 - is within the margin of error, YouGov said.

Celebrating the result, Mr Farage said on X: 'BREAKING NEWS. Reform UK are now LEADING with @‌YouGov for the first time. Britain wants Reform.' 

Labour, which won the national election in July last year by a landslide, dropped three points when compared to the last survey conducted on January 26 and 27, while Reform gained two points.

While Reform's lead is within the margin of error the symbolism of it topping the poll will be seized on by Mr Farage.

It will send alarm bells ringing in Labour and Tory HQ ahead of the local elections in May.

Head of European political and social research at YouGov, Anthony Wells, said that the poll showed all three main parties were effectively level pegging.

'We've had Labour and Reform extremely close over all our polls so far this year and this survey shows a narrow Reform lead,' he said.

'While it remains within the margins of error it reinforces the fact that Reform is roughly equal in support with Labour with Conservative slipping back again.'

The Liberal Democrats remained on 14 percentage points with the Green Party also staying level on nine points, both parties not changing from the previous poll.

Similarly the SNP and Plaid Cymru stayed on the same percentage points of three and one respectively. 

It follows another recent mega-poll which found that Labour were likely to lose more seats to Reform than the Conservatives will at the next General Election.

It suggested that Labour would lose many constituencies across their 'red wall' as well as seats in Wales and the south of England if an election were held today.

But the analysis - seen by The Observer - suggests that Reform would hypothetically bag 76 new seats, 60 of which would be Labour.

The research also anticipated that even the slightest swing in favour of the Reform part could see Starmer's party lose 76 seats.

Labour's slim lead means an increase in Reform voters or the slightest drop in support for the party could see Farage take the lead.

The poll commissioned by Hope Not Hate campaign group was conducted by Focaldata, who surveyed nearly 18,000 voters.

Their research found that 4,000 would support Reform, with one fifth of those labelling themselves as 'moderate, interventionist ' voters - dissimilar to previous UKIP or Brexit voters.

It found that these voters had a positive outlook on immigration but felt let down by Labour's ability to come through on their policies.

On Friday, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch dismissed Reform UK as a 'protest party', insisting she was focused on her job of holding the Labour Government to account.

Asked about the rise of Reform in the polls, Mrs Badenoch said: 'The reason why we were kicked out six months ago is because people were unhappy with our government.

'We are now under new leadership and I'm working to change that, but it's not going to happen overnight.

'What is astonishing is how badly Labour is doing. They should still be in a honeymoon period and people in this country are crying out for serious politics.

'It's not a surprise that at the moment protest parties are gaining in the polls, but the job that the British people have given me is to fight for them, be the leader of the opposition, hold the Government to account.

'That's why I'm here talking about the family farm tax. It's really important that we tell people what's going on with farming and how Labour's policies are going to destroy it.

'That's much more important than having a rally about myself.'

Farage then hit back, telling Reform members on Friday night that the Tories 'should be bloody scared of you'. 

On his party's success, he added: 'I think also we're beginning to see a wave that is crossing the Atlantic from the east coast of America, where Donald Trump, standing on a platform many of whose policies were not dissimilar to what we put to the British people in that contract last July, has won this incredible victory and got off to the most amazing start. 

'And even those people that don't like him say, you know what? He gets things done.'

The Reform leader added: 'People look at us and say 'like Trump these people will get things done', and believe me, we will.

'This is not just going to be an earthquake in British politics. This is going to be the biggest historical political change this country has ever seen.'