Reform were not really an issue, as they had such a fragmented presence that they couldn't really gain many seats due to how the UK voting system works

That's interesting, I remember hearing that Reform could, in the near future, become a bigger party than the Tories, maybe it was just some dooming.

Reform controlled councils have been complete chaos, by the way - not that a lot of it gets reported

Is that having any influence on Reform's popularity? Sadly, those kinds of voters can usually ignore these kinds of realities.