Voters could deliver their verdict on Nigel Farage's mass deportation plans as soon as Thursday, as his party is set to battle it out in a couple of by-elections.
Speaking from an airport hangar in Oxfordshire on Tuesday, the Reform leader vowed to strip away barriers to removals, including walking away from the European Convention on Human Rights and building new removal centres.
The commentariat generally viewed the timing of the announcement as a win for Farage, having caught Labour and the Conservatives on the back foot during the summer holidays.
On the News Agents podcast, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall branded Farage's performance as "very adroit", even though they were highly critical of his proposals, which include deporting 600,000 migrants over five years if winning power at the next election.
Reform will now be hoping to turn these pledges into votes as they go head to head with Labour, the Conservatives and Sir Ed Davey's Liberal Democrats in two by-elections this Thursday.
One Tory seat and one Labour seat are up for grabs.
It follows recent successes from Reform in Doncaster and the Greens in Cardiff and Newcastle, both of which were blows to the two biggest parties in the country.
GB News has taken a look at which seats are at play this week, and who could come out on top.
Reform will hoping these pledges translate into votes as they go head to head with Labour, the Conservatives and Sir Ed Davey's Liberal Democrats on Thursday
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Nuthall East & Strelley (Broxtowe)
Following the resignation of Conservative councillor, Graham Hills, a by-election will be taking place in the Nuthall East & Strelley ward in Broxtowe, Nottinghamshire on Thursday, August 28.
Reform will be seeking to clinch the seat, which has alternated between Independents, Conservatives, and Labour over the past two decades, often with narrow margins.
The insurgent party will also be buoyed by its performance at the local council elections in May, where it gained six out of Broxtowe’s nine county seats at Nottinghamshire County Council.
Mr Farage effectively secured two-thirds of the county-level representation for Broxtowe.
While the Conservative influence within the ward has been strong over the past 14 years, Labour took full control for the first time since 2003 in the borough’s 2023 full council election.
However, the council made national headlines last year when 20 former Labour councillors quit the party, sitting under the banner of the new Broxtowe Alliance group.
The group of councillors, who sit on Broxtowe Borough Council in Nottinghamshire, accused Keir Starmer of "abandoning traditional Labour values", citing a number of controversial policy decisions, including the Winter Fuel Payments and the party's stance on the war in Gaza.
One of the councillors who quit, Milan Radulovic, called for direct dialogue with Labour leader Keir Starmer, telling GB News: "Don't send us the diktats. Don't send us suspensions or other measures to keep us quiet."
The current composition of the authority is 19 Broxtowe Alliance councillors, nine Conservatives, seven Labour councillors, five under the Broxtowe Independent Group and three Liberal Democrats.
Reform will be eyeing up the seat, having gained six out of Broxtowe’s nine county seats at this year's local election for Nottinghamshire County Council.
Broxtowe Independents announce quitting Labour | BBC
The former Conservative MP Anna Soubry
| PAOn a parliamentary level, Broxtowe was once the seat of Conservative minister Anna Soubry, who held the seat from 2010 to 2019.
Soubry made headlines when she quit the Tories to become the leader of The Independent Group for Change, also known as Change UK, a new party formed of MPs that opposed Brexit and the leadership of the Conservatives and Labour under Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn.
She competed in her seat in 2019 under the new party's banner, finishing third behind Conservative MP Darren Henry and Labour's Greg Marshall.
Last year, Labour took the seat for the first time since 2005, with Juliet Campbell beating Henry with a majority of 8,403.
The full list of candidates standing in Nuthall East & Strelley
- Judy Couch (Conservative)
- Tyrone James Gall (Independent)
- Rachel Margaret Gravett (Green Party)
- Neil Jeffery Isted (Reform UK)
- Graham Lambert (Broxtowe Alliance)
- Domenica Lopinto (Labour)
West Hampstead (Camden)
There is one seat up for grabs in West Hampstead on Camden Council after a Labour turned Conservative councillor resigned from his position.
Shiva Tiwari resigned from his role as last month following his suspension by the party for threatening to shut down a Costcutter in his Camden patch, after they refused to hand over his UPS parcel.
The councillor, who defected from Labour to the Tories just four months before quitting the council, resigned after he was captured on CCTV appearing to swear at staff and pushing a man to gain entry into the shop’s storeroom.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police were called to the scene and spoke to both parties, with no formal complaints or arrests made.
Tiwari, who was first elected for the ward in 2018, told My London he regretted the incident and had apologised to the shop's staff at the time.
Labour's Tulip Siddiq risks being targeted by the Bangladeshi government | GETTYFor the majority of his history, the ward has been held by the Liberal Democrats, with the party holding all three seats from 2002 to 2014. The council has been under Labour majority control since 2010
On a parliamentary level, the ward forms part of the Hampstead and Highgate constituency, currently held by Labour's Tulip Siddiq.
The MP made headlines after being accused of illegally receiving land in Bangladesh as part of a wider investigation into the regime of her aunt, Sheikh Hasina, who was deposed as Prime Minister last year.
Hampstead and Highgate was once the seat held by actress turned Labour politician Glenda Jackson, who held the seat from 1992 to 2010, and then, following boundary changes, for Hampstead and Kilburn from 2010 to 2015.
The full list of candidates standing in West Hampstead:
- Ian Cohen (Conservative)
- Matthew James Hull (Green Party)
- Janet Grauberg (Liberal Democrat)
- Francesca Reynolds (Labour)
- Thomas Sterling (Reform UK)