Britain's right-wing Reform UK party won a vacant parliamentary seat, two mayoralties and control of several councils on Friday in early results from elections that its leader Nigel Farage said proved it was now the real opposition.

Reform UK's ex-deputy leader Ben Habib wants to take on his old party - but could his relaxed attitude to the possibility of Tommy Robinson joining leave his new venture dead on arrival?

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK landed its biggest blow yet against Britain’s political establishment in Thursday’s local votes, winning a string of victories that highlight how the populist right-wing party is shifting Britain’s electoral landscape.