Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (L) speaks while party chairman Zia Yusuf (R) looks on, during a press conference at Church House in Westminster. | TOLGA AKMEN

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A former senior British politician told me this week that he has no doubt that the Reform Party will form the next government in Britain. In Spain, Vox continue to be the third force in Spanish politics. All across Europe and beyond (including the US) the far right is gaining strength and ground in a major slap in the face for the mainstream parties. Their failure has meant that voters are looking elsewhere. Their woke attitudes to many key issues which are a concern to voters have put us in this position.

The mainstream parties, sadly, are out of touch with what a sizeable proportion of voters think and believe. Immigration is the key issue and to be honest it has often been ignored. It is the single biggest concern in most European countries. It not good that parties on the far right or the far left are gaining ground but they are advancing thanks to the more moderate parties on the right and left being oblivious to what voters want.

In the case of Reform it is a mixture of immigration and Brexit and what they would call common sense policies. I don’t criticise people who vote for them because they feel that they have been let down by the two parties who have formed successive governments in Britain. It is not a question of voters becoming more radical it is a failure of the ‘Old Guard’.