Success means scrutiny. As a protest party, Reform, like earlier Farage ventures, was distinguished mainly by a penchant for scandal and an uncanny ability to nudge the Tories into unforced errors. Now, the notion that Reform could be a party of government no longer seems fanciful. Its ideas should be taken seriously.

Less than five years after emerging from the ashes of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party, Reform UK is a political force in the ascendence. The right-wing populist party dominated loca