Now Farage not Starmer is feeding public’s appetite for change

A poll found that many Labour-Reform switchers blamed Boris Johnson rather than Nigel Farage for the UK’s slower growth outside the EU. Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images

There was a time when any election campaign featuring the name Nigel Farage would have featured the word “Brexit” just as prominently.

And yet, almost a decade after Farage orchestrated Britain’s great EU schism, and with the Reform leader emerging as a bigger political threat than ever, at this week’s local elections Brexit was not a word on the lips of voters.