This is just the beginning...we are fighting to win the next election

RUPERT Lowe knows what it is like to take a team to the cusp of victory.

- By David Williamson

When he was chairman of Southampton FC, the Saints reached the FA Cup Final in 2003.

He remembers it as one of the best days of his life - but Arsenal won the match 1-0.

Now, the 67-year-old is at the heart of a five-strong squad of Reform MPs who have won a bridgehead in Westminster.

This is just the beginning, he says, insisting the insurgent party will triumph at the next election. "We're going to win," he declares.

An overall majority is the goal and there are clear reasons why his confidence is surging. Firstly, he startled his friends by winning Great Yarmouth from the Tories in the summer election.

Then the world's richest man, Elon Musk, declared on his social network, X, that Mr Lowe talks "a lot of sense".

And now opinion polls have put Reform above both Labour and the Conservatives.

He is also sure there is "absolutely no chance" Labour will be able to tackle the small boats crisis before the next election.