Reform is fast becoming the party of the working man and woman. That bodes well for Robert Kenyon, the Reform candidate for Makerfield, as a survey of trade union members finds support for Labour and Reform is now neck-and-neck on 28%.

No doubt the oat milk latte snobs at Labour HQ will dismiss this as the oiks not knowing what's good for them, and simply succumbing to Reform's alleged "propaganda" about immigration and crime.

But I would say these folks know exactly what's good for them. They don't need propaganda. They have eyes – eyes to see small boats, HMOs, crime, overpriced housing and the general collapse of this once great country. No propaganda necessary.

Labour's shame is that the party intrinsically bound up with the trade unions has lost these people. The humiliation will be complete once Reform overtakes Labour in support among union members, which seems all but inevitable now.

Since 2024 support for Reform has jumped 20% and support for Labour dropped 20% among these folks. Will Andy Burnham – a man bound up with the Blairite project – arrest this decline? I doubt it.

Reform is the party of working-class Britain today. These are patriotic, often Brexit-backing, honest people who simply want a fair wage, reasonably priced housing and to get on in life. These are the workers not the shirkers. And these workers – the men and women who keep our country going – are increasingly rallying behind the party of alarm clock Britain.