We want people's voices heard, not ignored by MPs...

THERE is a geological phenomenon called the Foreshock”, that experts note as warning tremors before the tectonic plates Shift in a major earthquake. More often than not they are only recognised after the main event has taken place.

Richard Tice

My beating of the Lib Dems and the Greens to come third in the Old Bexley and Sidcup by-election last week is just such a Foreshock.

Only Reform UK, the Tories and Labour kept our deposits.

When I was out campaigning across that part of South East London, and I must have personally knocked on thousands of doors as my team canvassed the entire constituency, it was clear that the plates are shifting - a new political landscape is emerging.

The Conservative Party is priding itself on holding a seat it has never lost, hardly remarkable. Their majority was slashed from 18,000 to fewer than 5,000 as their voters stayed away despite a sunny day.

Reform UK was formed fewer than 12 months ago from the old Brexit Party.

Many in Bexley at the start of the campaign had not heard of us.

Of course it was not going to be easy in the wake of the tragic early death of a well-loved Member of Parliament in James Brokenshire.

Now we are moving fast, fighting another by-election on December 16 in North Shropshire, following the resignation of disgraced MP Owen Paterson.

By the middle of next year we will have 600 general election candidates selected, vetted and trained to pose a real threat to the tired legacy parties.