After storming to success in the local elections, Reform now holds real positions of power – so what does it intend to do with it? Asks Emma Revell

Many column inches will be spent poring over what the local elections mean for our supposedly two-party system, whether Labour or the Conservatives have most to lose from Reform on the march, and whether this is the end of Kemi Badenoch’s leadership (spoiler alert – no). But a more basic question has had much less attention. Now Reform has power, what do they intend to do with it?

Starting at the top, with Nigel Farage. He sits, it goes without saying, on the right of British politics. He supports lower taxes, welfare cuts, a smaller state and has, at times, supported an insurance-based healthcare system. Not long after her death, he proclaimed himself to be the only politician “keeping the flame of Thatcherism alive” and he has enough selfies with Donald Trump to wallpaper his parliamentary office.

Farage has also long attracted libertarians and free marketeers into his orbit – people who may disagree with him on some cultural or social issues, but who think that when it comes to economics, he’s on the money.

But the idea of Farage as just a tax-cutting state-slasher has always been somewhat misguided – he is also........

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