Editorial: ​The loss of control of immigration has been at the heart of Nigel Farage’s success

Nigel Farage is gloating that his new political party is now the real opposition in the UK.

​The Reform Party has more members than the Conservative Party, he says, with its membership numbers greater than the 131,680 figure given by the Conservatives this year.

It would be unwise to write off the Tories: they have been around in one form or another for more than 300 years and are among the great survivors of politics.

Also, it is one thing to have more members than the Conservatives, quite another to outpoll them. Rishi Sunak’s party won almost seven million votes in the July general election, despite it being one of the most disastrous results for the Tories in a century. Mr Farage’s Reform was far behind, on four million votes.

Even so, it was a remarkable achievement by Reform. There are a number of reasons for the success, including a public backlash against woke extremism, a desire for lower taxes, tougher law and order and ongoing euroscepticism.

But the biggest reason for their success is likely to be immigration, and the way in which Britain has lost control of it. It isn’t alone: Donald Trump, who not only won a surprise presidential victory in America last month but did so decisively, thinks immigration was the most important matter for US voters, even though surveys suggest it was the economy. In the UK, voters said the economy was more important but YouGov found that a mammoth 26% of voters across all parties and none thought immigration the top concern. Reform voters would think that far more than most.

They are right be appalled. As the brave English academic Matt Goodwin has been saying for years, the numbers of people coming into the UK are vast, putting huge cultural and infrastructural pressure on the nation.

The Tories are as, if not more, to blame than Labour for the scale of the influx.