The Reform Party of Nigel Farage has a better chance in the UK General Election than the Conservatives, according to sportsbooks. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

The 2024 UK General Election is fast approaching. Voting opens on Thursday as the nation prepares to decide whether to maintain the status quo or go for a new direction. Sportsbooks think that the chances of the former are very slim, to say the least.

They have priced current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party as +5000 to get a majority in the election. Notably, those are longer odds than those even for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party (+4000), which was seen as a rank outsider by most before the election was called.

slowly eating away at the Conservative vote share”

A spokesperson for William Hill said that the right-wing Reform UK party has been “slowly eating away at the Conservative vote share” since Farage announced his return to it last month. Farage previously headed the controversial UK Independence Party when it secured some success in the mid-2010s.

Despite this, the Labour Party is still the clear favorite, now trading as short as -3300 for most sportsbooks. Keir Starmer’s party has led the Conservatives for months in the polls, thanks in part to the rising cost of living in the UK.

In its manifesto, Labour pledged to “reform gambling regulation.” The party also positioned itself as “pro-business,” vowed to reduce patient waiting times for the National Health Service, and renationalize most passenger rail services.