For the third time in recent years a party created by Nigel Farage is threatening the Tory party’s fading hopes of re-election. But this time the Tories’ very existence is at stake.

Reform UK was founded in 2018 by Farage from the ashes of Ukip – which forced David Cameron to call and lose the 2016 EU referendum – and from the Brexit party, which destroyed Theresa May after she tried to backslide on Brexit.