Reform mania has reached fever pitch this week after the first major national opinion poll put Nigel Farage’s party ahead of both Labour and the Tories. It seems little coincidence that Tory leader Kemi Badenoch last night launched her first significant policy: a Reform-rivalling pledge to curb the ability of migrants to gain permanent residency or citizenship.

There is now no doubt that Labour is rattled by the rise of Nigel Farage's Reform UK. Sir Keir Starmer's party has gained a stark vision of what it will face if the insurgent party ever replaces the Conservatives as the official Opposition.