Farage's tax plans will help the rich, not the communities his party claims to champion

Those in Farage's constituency of Clacton would gain far less than those in leafy Orpington, where he has a £1m property

- Richard Partington

For a politician who has done more than most to shape Britain's current challenges, nothing seems to stick to Nigel Farage. Not the chaos of the post-Brexit referendum years, or the contradiction of his closed-border English nationalism combined with a fondness for courting nomad capitalists from Malaysia to Mar-a-Lago.

This is, of course, because the Reform UK leader is the agitator-in-chief. He has prodded successive prime ministers into action, but has not been in the driving seat himself. Things, though, are changing.

When Keir Starmer turned his guns on Reform last week, blasting the party's "fantasy economics", he made clear that Farage is now Labour's most serious rival. While Kemi Badenoch has led the Conservatives into increasing irrelevance, Reform has marched on to once traditional Labour ground on the economy, while keeping a rightwing stance on immigration and culture. It is clear that Farage sees an opening to peel support away from both traditional parties at once.

It is no fantasy to suggest that Farage, riding high in opinion polls, could become prime minister. He should expect heightened scrutiny of his policies as a result, not least on economic policy, where there are serious question marks over whether Reform's tax and spending plans add up.