Yet another U-turn from the PM. Just as with cuts to winter fuel payments, cuts to disability benefits and hikes in inheritance tax for farmers, we now have a reversal of the planned delay to local government elections. Not that Nigel Farage will be complaining. Reform – which led a legal challenge to the delays – is set to make big gains in May’s elections. Moreover, this latest U-turn quietens concerns the PM and his team may attempt to push back a general election slated for 2029 at the latest.

Not that it’s all smooth sailing for Reform. Though riding high in the polls, Farage’s party faces a tough battle in the Gorton and Denton by-election (though Labour is certain to suffer a humiliating defeat), while a latest political venture by former Reform MP (and now Independent) Rupert Lowe could take votes from Reform, especially if Lowe joins forces with Ben Habib. That could be especially damaging in tight marginals.

That said, Ben Habib’s Advance UK has barely made a dent in the national conversation. While Lowe’s Restore has the advantage of a sitting MP and Lowe’s substantial online following, both he and Habib have the same problem. Every populist party on the Right which made the weather in recent times – UKIP, the Brexit Party and now Reform – have one thing in common: Nigel Farage.

As for Sir Keir Starmer, far from his hoped-for perception as Captain Sensible and Mr Pragmatic, the latest U-turn merely makes him look indecisive, hesitant and without any credible ideological anchor. He won in 2024 as the Anti-Tory. Now that mantle has passed to Farage.

The PM’s advantage has gone and, with it, so much of his authority. Whether led by the PM or any pretenders to the throne, all Labour has is reheated Blairism, oscillating between viewing its old working-class base as either bigots or charity cases, neither of which Reform sees these people as. Starmerism – if it ever really existed – is done. May’s elections will likely be the final nail in the coffin.