A Reform UK victory at the next general election is growing more likely because the party's backers are driven by ideology rather than protest, the UK's leading pollster has said.

Professor Sir John Curtice said his latest analysis was that the insurgent party's supporters are a 'coalition' of people with 'distinct socially conservative views'.

It means turning around the state of the sluggish economy or improving the NHS 'might help' Labour but is 'unlikely to be sufficient'.

While Sir John predicted Reform's popularity is unlikely to surge much above 30 points, he said this could be 'a potentially winning number' because UK politics was so fragmented. He also said Reform has been eating the Tories for 'breakfast, lunch and dinner' in terms of peeling off Right-leaning voters.

Reform is hovering around 26 to 27 percentage points, Labour 17 to 19 and the Tories 18 to 19 in current polls. But do you agree with Sir John's assessment of the party's backers? Vote here in the Daily Mail's latest poll:

In yesterday's poll, Mail readers were asked: 'Has Nicola Sturgeon been unfairly vilified?' Out of more than 20,000 votes, 92 per cent of you said 'no' and 8 per cent said 'yes'.