Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is currently riding high.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Reform UK only has five MPs.

With Nigel Farage’s party continuing to enjoy a healthy lead in the opinion polls, both Labour and the Tories seem to be engaged in a battle to outdo one another in their attempts to win back Reform-curious voters.

From immigration to Net Zero, issues which have been central to Farage’s political outlook for years are now being campaigned on by one or both of the established parties.

A day after Reform pledged to scrap Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) status for immigrants, home secretary Shabana Mahmood announced the government would be tightening the rules around it, albeit stopping short of outright abolition.

In an attempt to deter asylum seekers from trying to cross the English Channel in small boats, Keir Starmer announced he wanted to make it harder for them to get the “golden ticket” of British citizenship for them and their families.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch went even further at the party’s annual conference, pledging to end the UK’s commitment to Net Zero and also come out of the European Convention on Human Rights – policies which Farage has long campaigned on.

Zia Yusuf, Reform’s former chairman and now its policy chief, is fond of proclaiming on social media that Farage will be the UK’s next prime minister.

Given Labour and the Tories’ apparent determination to ape many of his party’s policies, it is reasonable to ask whether he is already in post.

Chris........

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