How Reform won votes from Swansea to Sunderland

The majorities for the MPs though were shallow and Reform came a strong second in many seats. And that with largely low profile if not invisible candidates, and without much of a ground campaign.

The door was ajar to a more concerted push.

Since the 2008 credit crunch no government has been able to provide a sustained solution to the biggest problem – how to return to a time when people on modest and low incomes felt they were gradually getting wealthier and happier instead of worrying about the rising cost of living.

When Labour talked about the risks of handing councils over to Reform candidates with little or no experience of local government, voters responded by asking: what was there to lose?

There were echoes of the 2016 Brexit referendum when North East voters, asked about the risks of leaving the EU, would respond by saying that things could not get any worse.

When you feel the established parties and politicians are not doing much for you and your community, where is the risk in rolling the dice?

North East voters in this election said they felt someone different deserved a chance to move the dial.

There is a risk then for Labour that these are not short-term losses but the tipping point in a longer decline in a region they have relied on.

And Nigel Farage's party has built an operation that is not just capable of hoovering up former Labour voters.

In Essex, Suffolk and Havering, Reform UK mopped up in former Conservative areas as well.

The scale of that operation is partly thanks to the extremely deep pockets of their donors. Last year, for example, Reform UK received more than £5.4m in large donations in the final three months of the year, more than any other political party, new figures from the Electoral Commission show.

This included another big donation of £3m from cryptocurrency investor and aviation entrepreneur Christopher Harborne.

That has allowed Farage the freedom to spend vast amounts on social media advertising, targeting messages to particular voters in particular areas.

Reform UK is also benefiting from a wider resentment at politics in general; a sense that from the NHS to the economy to border control, the state isn't working as it should.

And so, as Bernard and Linda said, and as voters on the doorstep in the North East of England and elsewhere have said, more and more people are willing to "take a chance" on a party untested over long periods in government.

A big barrier to Reform is thought to have been that there is a significant proportion of people so vehemently opposed to Farage they are willing to vote for whichever party is best placed to defeat them.

But there are some early signs there might be limits to the 'Stop Reform' strategy. In Wigan, for example, ward-by-ward results suggest the combined votes for Labour, Greens and the Lib Dems was often not enough to overtake Reform UK.

That provides Reform UK with enormous opportunities, as it has demonstrated with these results.

From Basildon to Barnsley; Walsall to Wakefield; Thurrock to Tamworth they issued a devastating rebuke to the traditionally dominant Labour and Conservative parties.

That gives Farage an even larger army of councillors, volunteers and activists to draw on come the general election.

But it also has challenges. As Labour have found to their cost, promising change in opposition is one thing. Standing on a record in government is another.

And in more places than ever, Reform are no longer the insurgency. They are now the incumbents.