Another week, another defection from the Conservatives to Reform UK, with former home secretary Suella Braverman becoming the latest Tory to join Nigel Farage’s party.

40% of Reform UK voters say that the recent defections have changed their image of the party they voted for in 2024, though these are near-divided between the 23% who say it has made them think more positively of the party and 17% who now think more negatively of it.

A third of 2024 Conservatives (35%) also say it’s changed their view of the party, including 22% who say it’s made them more think more positively about Reform UK, relative to 13% who say it’s made them more negative towards it.

Some have suggested that Nigel Farage accepting so many former Tories risks weakening distinctions between the two parties.

While the 48% of Britons who see the two parties as at least fairly similar is largely unchanged from previous times we’ve asked the question, the proportion seeing them as different has fallen ten points since last September to 32%, with this fall concentrated among those seeing them as very different.

Just 20% of Reform UK voters now see the two parties as very distinct, down from 40% last autumn, with the proportion of 2024 Conservatives able to draw a very clear line between the two falling from 24% to 14%.

The shootings of civilians Renée Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents in Minnesota have drawn widespread condemnation in the US and captured headlines across the world.

Half of Britons (50%) say they are following the stories at least fairly closely, including 15% who say they are following them very closely.

Interest is strongest among Green voters, 68% of whom are following the events in Minnesota at least fairly closely, alongside 54-59% of Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem voters, but just 41% of Reform UK voters.

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