'I'm a proud racist': inside the first Reform UK pub

Barney Davis finds extreme views in Blackpool's Talbot

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Tucked away on a residential street in the suburbs of Blackpool, the Talbot is not the kind of pub you'd expect people to travel to from across the country.

And yet, thanks to its grand rebrand as the world's first Reform UK pub complete with a new turquoise-blue paint job thousands of Nigel Farage fans have made the pilgrimage from as far as Scotland and Northern Ireland to tell their mates they've had a pint at the newly political pub.

As you enter, your eyes adjust from the bright Lancashire sunshine to the flicker of GB News on every screen. The fruit machines jingle and the dulcet tones of Belinda Carlisle are blasted from the jukebox. This, the locals are quick to tell me, is a "real boozer".

As I reach the bar, I find Carling Export for £2.60 a pint, although this stunningly cheap price is not afforded to the European heavyweights Stella, Madri and Cruzcampo, priced at a comparatively eye-watering £4.50.

Wonky "Vote for Reform" posters are hung next to offers of three shots for £5 - both designed using the same 1990s Microsoft clip art - while other notices tell locals that a Take That tribute act will be there in August, all the way from Benidorm.