The Electoral Calculus prediction based on this poll:

Labour: 462

Tories: 68

Lib Dems: 68

Reform: 4 (Clacton, Ashfield (Lee Anderthal's seat), Boston & Skegness, Wellingborough & Rushden (Peter Bone's old seat))

Green: 2 (Brighton Pavilion, Bristol Central)

SNP: 21

Plaid: 4

Independents: 3 (Birmingham Ladywood, Islington North, Rochdale)

Which begs an important question: if the Tories and Lib Dems tie for the second largest party, who gets to be the opposition?

Well Farage's plan seems to be working.

Anyone remember the Lib Dems coming second in polls in 2010?

Is this going to make much of a difference with FPTP? I doubt it.

Not to be pedantic (ha-ha, just kidding, I love being pedantic) but this is still a statistical tie, rather than a real lead, which would have to be 3 points plus. Additionally, it's only one poll, and it's from YouGov, who have consistently shown lower votes for the Big Two and higher votes for the smaller parties than other polling companies, even before their methodology change, which increased the gap between them and other pollsters in that regard.

What's more, Reform have consistently underperformed the polls in actual elections. Granted, Farage has increased their vote since he decided to stand, but the real elections suggest that he's increased it from a much lower basis than the polls would have us believe.

Take this with a tablespoon of salt, is what I'm saying.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The poll results were released minutes before Mr Farage was due to take part in a 7-way debate on ITV, with Conservative cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt, among others.

The words will spark dread among Tory MPs who are seeing their majorities disappearing as their voters turn their backs on Rishi Sunak and defect to Reform.

Many Tory MPs are terrified Reform will put the final nail in their coffin, not by winning their seat but by taking enough votes to hand it to Labour or the Lib Dems.

Reform also claimed they had made history when they unveiled a Party Election Broadcast that turned TV screens black for nearly five minutes – except for the message: “Britain is broken.

At the weekend he was accused of going into hiding after he was forced to make a grovelling apology for leaving the D-Day commemorations early to take part in a TV interview.

Earlier this week Mr Farage pulled out of a high-profile BBC interview as his Reform party faced a row over whether the UK should have appeased Hitler.

The original article contains 757 words, the summary contains 178 words. Saved 76%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

We may sneer at 'Good old Nige' but he's getting airtime and people are going to vote for him and his party, however cack we think are.

Now that may hurt the tories, which is all well and good, but if they keep getting publicity and what have you it's going to draw away votes from more deserving candidates.

Also hilarious as it was, we should not be condoning throwing of objects etc. at politicians, however much we dislike them. That's a slippery slope and could lead to some serious injuries. What appens when somebody decides it's funny and will get laughs on Tik Tok to throw acid or bleach? Or a glass bottle full of piss?

We've seen what his 'patriotic' supporters are like and we don't need more of them.