Britain's anti-immigrant Reform UK party is seeking to prove its credentials as a credible political force at local elections this week that will test the popularity of Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Nigel Farage's hard-right upstarts are pushing to pick up scores of council and mayoral seats, as well as a parliamentary one, that they hope will help them organise a serious challenge at the next general election, likely in 2029.

Their rise comes as polls show Britons are increasingly disenchanted with the country's two establishment parties: the traditionally centre-left Labour and the Conservatives on the right.

At a UK parliamentary by-election on Thursday in Runcorn, an industrial town in northwest England, Reform is tipped to add to its small cohort of MPs that achieved a historic breakthrough at last year's national polls.

"Labour's rubbish. They tell lies. They're the same as the Tories. We need someone different," 70-year-old retiree Ann Murray, who will vote Reform, told AFP inside the Runcorn Shopping City mall.

Reform secured 14 percent of the vote at the general election in July last year, winning five seats in the 650-seat parliament -- an unprecedented haul for a hard-right party in........

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