PM can see that Farage is the real threat to Labour

Two insurgent right-wing populists loomed over Sir Keir Starmer’s local election launch yesterday. Donald Trump, because the US president’s Liberation Day” tariffs threaten to blow the PM’s Plan for Change” out of the water. And Nigel Farage, whom Sir Keir fears will snap up hundreds of local council seats in Reform UK’s first major test since the general election.

- ARCHIE MITCHELL

The Reform leader has promised to field candidates in 99 per cent of the seats up for grabs and could stamp his party’s authority as a real electoral force, not just a passing fad, in the polls amid anger among voters at Labour’s failings.

Sir Keir addressed the Conservatives’ record in national and local government, with deputy PM Angela Rayner and Labour chair Ellie Reeves both piling in on the Tory party’s failings over its 14 years in power. But, making his pitch to voters ahead of polling day next month, it was all too clear that Sir Keir is focused on what he sees as the threat of the future – Reform – having vanquished the now dishevelled Conservatives in July.