ANXIOUS Labour MPs have set up a back-bench group to counter the threat to their seats from Reform UK.

The initiative follows opinion polls showing Reform in the lead nationwide and separate surveys indicating that it is Labour seats that Nigel Farage’s hard-right party is most likely to win.

Labour MPs are concerned that the government’s plans to encourage economic growth, such Heathrow expansion and investment in the Oxford-Cambridge arc, are too focused on the south-east.

“It’s not going to create growth in the forgotten areas where Reform are more likely to be second,” one MP said.

Many of the constituencies Reform hopes to win are in the former industrial areas of the north of England and the Midlands. The MPs are pressing for investment in transport and infrastructure in their areas and migration will also be a focus.

Mr Farage did himself no favours in the Commons today, floundering when pressed by Labour over Reform’s plans to privatise the NHS.