A Reform UK councillor has been suspended by the party just three days after being elected. Donna Edmunds faces an investigation after it emerged she had previously vowed to defect to another right-wing party in the future.

Until now, Reform’s political impact had far outweighed its electoral impact. Mr Farage’s team had topped the polls on and off since the start of the year; the local elections on May 1st were a chance to show that this surge was not just an artefact of polling. The party took it.

Councils don't have control over nationwide immigration policy, although Farage has said Reform will "resist central government plonking hundreds of these young men in these counties that we now run".