Reform UK's rise from insurgent to pace-setter is documented across this page. Polling stories chart the party stretching its lead to nine points as Labour's collapse deepens, then extending it further as Kemi Badenoch posts her best ratings yet. Strategy features alongside the numbers, including the shift on the two-child benefit cap as the welfare battle intensifies. Since Keir Starmer's resignation, the coverage pivots to Nigel Farage seizing the moment — demanding a snap election and setting his sights on Andy Burnham — and what the Labour contest means for the Reform threat.
A historic election win curdled into open revolt as the local election rout, the rise of Reform UK and slumping approval ratings combined to end the Prime Minister's tenure.
Reform UK called immediately for a general election and the Conservatives went on the attack, while Labour figures lined up behind the frontrunner to succeed the departing Prime Minister.
The race to replace Sir Keir Starmer is also an argument about what Labour is for. With Reform UK leading the polls and liberal voters drifting to the Greens, the new leader must settle a fight over the party's very identity.
With Reform UK leading the polls, Nigel Farage claimed to have 'deposed' Sir Keir Starmer and declared he is not frightened of Andy Burnham or any Labour successor.
With Sir Keir Starmer gone, the latest voting-intention figures put Nigel Farage's Reform UK on 27%, almost ten points clear of a Labour Party that has shed roughly a third of its 2024 support.
Voters in Aberdeen South and in Arbroath and Broughty Ferry go to the polls on the same day as Makerfield, in contests watched closely at Holyrood and Westminster.
An Opinium survey put Nigel Farage's party on 29 per cent, well ahead of Labour and the Conservatives, underlining the fragmentation of British politics.
The party's first northern Westminster victory pushed Labour into third place and reshaped the political map ahead of a knife-edge summer.
Nigel Farage's party has reversed course on the two-child benefit limit, sharpening the contest with Labour over welfare policy.
A new survey puts Nigel Farage's party clear at the top, with the Conservative leader recovering even as Labour languishes in second place.