A Tory government rules over a discontented nation: the polls show it is headed for catastrophic defeat. As the hapless Prime Minister stumbles into one public-relations blunder after another, commentators say that the race has been all but won by the centre-left opposition. Meanwhile, a maverick populist force under the banner of “Reform” emerges to challenge the Tories from the Right: its leader is a quirky character who nonetheless speaks compellingly about issues practically ignored by the political elite. The fledgling party’s sudden rise threatens not to just upend the dynamics of the race but to permanently realign the country’s politics in one way or another.
