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.