Today in Focus presenter Helen Pidd goes out on the road – to Birmingham, Stalybridge and Clacton – to chart Nigel Farage’s bid to transform Reform UK into a modern, professional political party

At the Reform UK party conference in September, its leader, Nigel Farage, announced a “historic mission” for his party: to professionalise, to modernise and mobilise a “people’s army” to win support all over the country.

It came off the back of unprecedented success for Reform at the general election: no populist right party in the UK had ever taken as many as its five seats in July. And they were won despite a campaign marred by racist and Islamophobic remarks from Reform members and candidates.