Labour MPs fume as Reform's non-stop press conferences take control of the news agenda

After Nigel Farage dominated the summer headlines with weekly press conferences while his rivals were on their sunloungers, Labour strategists swore they would never let it happen again.

- Pippa Crerar

Labour MPs had returned to Westminster after recess, fuming that the government had vacated the public arena and allowed Reform UK to shape the narrative, to the extent that the mood hardened against Keir Starmer.

"People in their constituencies have been getting terrible feedback. Farage has been everywhere," one MP told the Guardian at the time. "The mood was: this has been a fucking disaster. We've been given nothing to do. The government just cleared the pitch."

The febrile atmosphere on the back benches has largely given way to despondency since the summer, but the anxiety around Reform's persistent lead in the polls ahead of next May's elections remains.

So Reform's decision to hold a burst of press conferences, taking dozens of questions, three days in a row this week to coincide with the news agenda slowing down during the school half-term break, has sent a chill down the spines of some Labour MPs.