Reform becoming new Conservative movement - Farage

Nigel Farage has said Reform UK is becoming a "brand new Conservative movement".

Making a speech in Kent, Mr Farage said there was a "lack of debate" between the two main parties and that the election had got off to the "dullest start" he could remember.

The party's honorary president acknowledged Reform UK was "not very well-funded" but said it was offering a "distinct" message.

Speaking earlier in the day, minister Mel Stride said a vote for Reform was a "vote to give Keir Starmer the keys to No 10".

Reform UK - previously known as the Brexit Party - has said it will stand in 630 seats out of a possible 650 across the country.

Nigel Farage has ruled out standing as a candidate and hinted that he wants to focus on helping his friend Donald Trump in his bit to win the US presidential election.

However, he has said he still wants to help the party he set up and on Tuesday morning gave a speech in Dover, in which he launched a fierce attack on the Conservatives and Labour.

Asked if he was trying to destroy the Conservatives, he replied: "They have destroyed themselves.

"Is there a Conservative Party? I haven't spotted it - all I can see is two big social democratic parties."

On Monday, Lucy Allan, who is standing down as a Conservative MP, urged voters in her former constituency of Telford to back the Reform candidate.

Mr Farage also defended comparing immigration to "an invasion" saying the numbers coming to the UK in small boats were like a "slow motion D-Day in reverse".

He said he was "proud" of the UK's record on integration but expressed concern that there was a "growing number of young men" adopting radical views that are "extremely anti-British".

He denied he was Islamophobic saying: "The most worried group about what is going on with this new form of British sectarianism are British Muslims.

"Paying their taxes, working, wanting their kids to do well - they will be worst affected by this current unpleasant trend."