A tiny right-wing party tries to menace Britain’s Conservatives

“We need toukmp send these monkeys a very significant shock,” says Ben Habib, Reform ’s candidate in the Wellingborough by-election. It is doubtful if anybody who has come to hear him speak, in a dimly lit Baptist church, truly believes Mr Habib will win the election on February 15th. But he could shock the monkeys (that is, the government) all the same.Once a shoemaking powerhouse, Wellingborough, a town in Northamptonshire, now contains barbers, eastern European food stores and a clutch of post-war buildings that one architectural historian dismissed as “drab cheap stuff”. In short, it looks like many English towns. And Wellingborough is also like other English towns in its Conservatism. The outgoing Tory , Peter Bone, won 62% of the vote in the 2019 general election, against just 26% for his Labour opponent.