In the aftermath of their triumph, the new leaders face serious work

What we witnessed in the Kent County Council elections was less a political “earthquake”, as the Liberal Democrat Richard Streatfeild put it, and more like an Exocet. It was lethal and effective.

- SIMON Finlay has a warning for the new council...

To see the Conservatives reduced to five seats when they started the day on 57 is almost unthinkable.

The new Reform UK administration has full control of the council and cannot be outvoted by the other parties, who hold just 24 seats in total.

So what of the Conservatives? The Tory Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Scott described the catastrophe that befell them today as “potentially existential”.

A (former) backbencher put it slightly more succinctly when he said: “Reform is the new Conservative Party. They have nicked many of the values of traditional Conservatism and they appeal in a way that Thatcher did 40 years ago.

“How we build back from here is impossible to know.”