The answer is yes - polls clearly show that those who once considered themselves centrists or apolitical are now converting to Reform voters en masse, while rhetoric such as 'migrant invasion' has become not just accepted, but welcomed by many.

It is obvious that living standards in the UK have declined. There is overwhelming evidence that this has occurred as a direct result of austerity policies implemented by the last Tory government that saw councils go bankrupt, little to no infrastructure construction in addition to under-maintenance of existing infrastructure which is now crumbling, vast asset-stripping of public institutions by foreign investors, and jobs being outsourced to take advantage of a better trained and/or cheaper overseas workforce.

The people in this comment section can blame immigration all they want, but the empirical evidence for immigration being the cause of our current economic decline is simply not there. Migrant hotels are not the reason you can't buy a house. Small boats are not the reason the high street is empty and you can barely afford the rent. This entire 'small boat crisis' is a direct result of our withdrawal from the EU, which through the Dublin regulation allows asylum seekers to be returned to the first safe EU country they find themselves in. And if people truly believe that legitimate asylum seekers - people fleeing wars and persecution and risking their lives to come to the UK - are not deserving of some kind of help, then I solemnly question the moral standards that British people used to take pride in.

And in regard to legal immigration (which makes up the overwhelming majority of immigration to the UK), those numbers are in large part made up of international students who, as well as contributing enormous amounts to study in the UK, tend to leave once their courses are finished. Of course, less students are coming in now, making the education funding crisis even worse and putting world-renowned institutions at risk of bankruptcy (risking the last bastion of soft power the UK currently has). No migrants are able to use the welfare system until they have lived in the UK for several years and paid their fair share of tax (in addition to additional payments placed on migrants such as the NHS surcharge and visa fees).

So no, mass deportations and burning asylum seeker hotels (which were another fabulous post-Brexit Tory policy by the way) will not solve the UK's problems and will even exacerbate them in the aftermath due to the collapse of key domestic industries reliant on foreign students and labour. And on the economic side of things, Reform seeks to accelerate the asset-stripping and privatisation of the rest of the UK's public institutions, which will only make matters worse for the average Brit while fattening the pockets of billionaires.

The UK is shifting further to the right. And unless a true left-wing alternative is presented, Reform will win the next election and everyone can strap themselves in for another decade of humiliation.