I have read countless commentaries explaining why we shouldn’t take Reform’s victories last Thursday too seriously. They are all wrong. I have the distinct impression that these were the most significant election results for a good few decades.
Up here in the north, everyone I know voted Reform. More importantly, when I used to ask people how they voted, they would beckon me to one side and, through a cupped hand, whisper ‘Reform’. Now they say it out loud and proud.
And the apology is because I had doubted Reform’s ability to climb above 30 per cent – the crucial figure. I also doubted that they were serious enough about the Blue Labour/SDP levelling-up stuff. And I doubted their ability to make serious inroads into local government. All of this was wrong too.
Farage and Tice have done an exceptional job. Hearing the former tell those council DEI employees to start looking for another job made me happier than at any time since David Lammy was on Celebrity Mastermind.
This is a real change in British politics – and more lasting, I think, than that brought about by the SDP in 1983.
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