Nigel Farage's return boosts UK's right wing Reform UK party, poll shows

LONDON (Reuters) - Support for Britain's Reform UK party has risen to just two percentage points short of the ruling Conservatives since Nigel Farage's decision to take over leadership and stand for election, a YouGov opinion poll published on Wednesday showed.

The poll, conducted entirely after Farage's surprise decision to return to frontline politics on Monday, put Reform on 17%, with the governing Conservative Party on 19%.

The opposition Labour Party topped the poll with 40%.

YouGov said they had updated their methodology for the poll, which had resulted in a smaller lead for Labour than it had previously showed.

But the changes did not affect the increase for Reform, which was three percentage points under both the old and new methodology, YouGov said.

(This story has been corrected to say 're-election,' not 'election,' in paragraph 1)

(Reporting by William James; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)