He began the day on Monday at a news conference in central London, and I meet him mid-afternoon as he's being loaded onto a small plane to Aberdeen to travel to a members' rally that evening.

Today, he'll fly to the Shetland Islands before travelling to Glasgow and then London. It will be like this for the entire run up to the May elections as Farage looks to turn his party from one governing a handful of councils in England to a serious party of government.

A leader always on the go

The Reform leader has already done about 40 campaign visits in recent weeks, and will do the same again in the run up to polling day on 7 May.

If the schedule sounds exhausting, Farage seems energised and upbeat as he settles into his seat and orders a gin and tonic.

He tells me campaigning is his favourite bit of the job as he chats with his team about the schedule for the week and the campaign.

Soon lunch comes - a charcuterie and cheese board and scotch eggs, washed down with a big glass of red wine.

This is a moment of relaxation for a leader always on the go, and I think about what a contrast Farage cuts to that of the prime minister, who I've watched from afar on flights, spending his time in meetings, going through his red box, looking at briefing notes or checking over a speech.

Farage does none of that as I sit opposite him on the plane, and he reminds me that he never writes a speech for these rallies.

Later he tells me he works off the "rule of three" - three different points he wants to make weaved into a speech. In the case of Scotland, his pitch is the failure of successive Scottish governments to deliver and what Reform could do for Scotland - be that expanding oil and gas production or cutting income tax.

I cannot quite believe I am even writing this, but Reform hopes to become the official opposition to the SNP in Holyrood in May and sees this election for the Scottish parliament as the first step to seriously competing for power in Scotland in five years' time.

It's astonishing they are in this position: at the last Holyrood elections, Reform didn't even register - winning no seats at all.

The latest YouGov poll for Sky News predicts Farage will take 20 seats in Scotland and eclipse the Conservatives to become the official opposition.

Reform aiming for 'seismic' wins

As in other parts of the country, Reform is benefitting from the collapsing support for Labour and the Conservatives. In Scotland, Labour had hoped to win Holyrood from the SNP after nearly two decades, but that prospect has collapsed in tandem with the drop in support for the Starmer government.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar called for Keir Starmer's resignation earlier this year as he sought to salvage his campaign and create distance from the Westminster government.

Sarwar told me last month that he believed he could still win this election, but polling puts them third.

It is a similar story in Wales, where Labour has held power ever since the Senedd was created in 1999. Now they are battling Reform for second position as Plaid Cymru takes the lead.

Farage tells me he thinks that Reform can win the Welsh Parliament, which would be seismic: "Here in Scotland, to become the opposition would be amazing, absolutely amazing, and if we can embed ourselves there, we can move on in the years to come.

"In Wales, well, we're neck and neck right now with Plaid Cymru. The Labour Party, particularly in The Valleys - the real birthplace of the Labour Party - is almost disappearing off the map. So, to be frank, coming first in Wales is the ambition. Whether we can remains to be seen."

Some big issues to overcome

Farage tells me that he thinks the big story of these elections will be the collapse of Labour - across the Welsh Valleys, the red wall in the Midlands, the North East, the North West and in Scotland.

But Farage has his challenges too. While the insurgent party is benefiting from voters' disillusionment with the Conservatives and Labour, the sheen is coming off Reform a little of late.

Recent polls show Reform's support has fallen a few percentage points from highs of 29% to 30% in the spring and summer of 2025, while a poll earlier this month by Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft suggested Reform has lost its outright lead across the UK for the first time in more than a year, putting the party on 21% alongside the Tories and Greens, with Labour on 17%.

It is perhaps some of the pains of moving from a party of protest to becoming a party in power.

There are still big questions around delivery. Recent polling shows that only a quarter of Britons think Reform UK are ready to form the next government, while 58% disagree. This position has slightly worsened from September 2025, when 53% disagreed.

There are some big issues for the leader to overcome. First is his positioning on the Iran war and Donald Trump.

Pollster Luke Tryl says that the "biggest barrier to people voting for Reform is Trump", while the YouGov March tracker poll found that 14% of Britons had a favourable opinion of Donald Trump and 81% had an unfavourable opinion.

When I ask Farage if he has a Trump problem, he tells me "no". But he also spends some of our conversation distancing himself from his old friend while trying to avoid disavowing him: "It's America first, not Trump."

'We're not North Korea'

There is also the question of distancing at a more local level when it comes to delivering on the handful of English councils Reform controls (it has nine with outright control and three under minority control).

Farage gets irritated when he's questioned about promises made by some Reform candidates on council tax that were not kept.

He tells me he cannot be responsible for what potential candidates promised on leaflets, and points out that Reform councils have overall delivered the lowest average council tax increases of any major party.

The nine upper-tier councils controlled by a Reform majority increased Band D council tax for 2026/27 by an average of 3.94% - lower than the overall average increase for councils controlled by other parties, which was 4.86%.

However, it is equally true that Reform politicians made promises they did not keep.

North Northamptonshire candidates signed a letter pledging a freeze. Council tax there has gone up by 4.99%.

A Kent County Council leaflet promised to "cut your taxes", but it was raised by 3.99%.

Leaflets being distributed by a Reform candidate in the Staffordshire region said Reform would "freeze council tax and biz rates". Council tax went up by 3.99% there, too.

Farage answers this by saying: "We're not North Korea. I can't control individuals and thousands of people."

He repeats his point that he didn't promise cuts, but it raises questions about delivery and keeping promises - the exact points Farage and his team criticise other politicians about.

On the cusp of success

Should Reform win more councils and perhaps even a national parliament in May, those questions and that scrutiny is only going to increase.

Three months ago, Farage said he was halfway ready to form a government. On Monday he told me he was now 75% of the way there with a leader appointed in Scotland and Wales, and four major spokesperson figures.

He is now on the cusp of real success in a set of elections that look set to be an important staging post on Reform's journey towards trying to win the general election in 2029.

If it goes Farage's way, he'll have proven he can win at the ballot box - but delivering in office is going to be a much harder task, and test.

The chief inspector of prisons placed the Category A jail in special measures in 2024 and - after a fresh inspection in January 2026 - concluded it remains in a "precarious state", with a high number of serious assaults and weak security fuelling drug problems.

The report highlights the challenge of specialised gangs piloting drones to fly drugs and weapons into the prison, formerly known as Strangeways.

Inspectors wrote: "Drones continued to bring large quantities of drugs into the jail, which was leading to high levels of violence and instability.

"A failure by leaders in the prison service and absurdly bureaucratic planning processes meant just a handful of windows had been replaced, with the consequence that organised crime gangs continued to operate with impunity."

It said that - despite additional staff being deployed to detect drones and search cells for drugs - there was no improvement in reducing positive drug test results, which at 38% is one of the highest rates in England and Wales.

The report found that the prison "had made very little progress in installing secure windows and grilles to stop drugs getting in, and half of the prisoners surveyed during the inspection said that it was easy to get hold of illicit substances".

It continued: "The level of serious assaults was among the highest in the adult male estate, and violence against staff had increased."

Other concerns included a very high use of force by staff, prisoners unable to access purposeful activity including education, inmates getting limited time out of their cells, rubbish attracting rats, and "filthy" kitchens.

The report warned: "Along with isolation, loneliness and poor mental health, this inactivity was contributing to high rates of self-harm, and there had been four self-inflicted deaths since the previous inspection.

"Manchester remained a prison in a precarious state, and it was continuing to perform at unacceptably low levels."

Inspectors commented on a sports pitch, which could not be used because it needed to be resurfaced, stating it was a "wasted opportunity for much-needed outdoor activity".

They also concluded the special accommodation cells were in poor condition, some with damaged flooring, blocked air vents and water leaking from the ceiling.

However, reflecting on some changes made at the prison, "inspectors recognised the work that the governor and his team had put into improving the stability of the jail".

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Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said: "Leaders at Manchester had made a determined effort to start grappling with some of the issues identified in 2024 and we saw some early evidence of improvement.

"However, without more determined action from HMPPS [HM Prison and Probation Service] to improve physical security, drugs will continue to undermine those efforts.

"That work must be prioritised, and issues around staff recruitment and education provision tackled, if Manchester is to deliver the rehabilitative activity that prisoners need to successfully re-establish themselves in society when they are released."

Andrea Coomber, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said the most effective way to reduce the supply of drugs at HMP Manchester is to reduce demand for them in the first place.

"When almost half of people held at Manchester prison are unemployed and spending more than 21 hours a day locked in their cells, is it any wonder that rates of drug use and violence are sky-high?" she said in a statement.

Sir Keir Starmer's official salary is £172,153 - but according to the TaxPayers' Alliance, 320 workers in local government were on a bigger pay packet in 2024/25.

The pressure group has claimed this has risen by a third over the past 12 months, with one executive at Staffordshire Council - whose job title is unknown - earning £457,000.

Overall, it is believed 4,733 council employees across the UK are now on a six-figure salary, and that's the highest level since the TaxPayers' Alliance began keeping records in 2007.

Of those, 1,255 took home at least £150,000 a year, an increase of 163 compared with the pressure group's last Town Hall Rich List report in 2025.

TaxPayers' Alliance chief executive John O'Connell said: "Taxpayers are caught in a pincer movement with a record-breaking tax burden on one side and a bloated public sector feathering its nest on the other.

"Our latest Town Hall Rich List exposes a surging class of council bosses enjoying six-figure packages, even as they plead poverty, slash frontline services and hike council tax bills far beyond inflation.

"Residents can see exactly how many local bureaucrats are receiving plush packages and judge for themselves whether they're getting value for money."

As reported by the Sky News Data and Forensics team, some households in England have seen exceptionally high council tax rises come into effect since the new financial year began.

A handful of local authorities have been allowed to raise their council tax rates higher than the usual 5% minimum as part of new finance arrangements.

North Somerset, Shropshire, and Worcestershire were permitted to raise their council tax by nearly 9%.

In Windsor & Maidenhead, Trafford and Warrington, residents saw council tax rise by nearly 7.5% while, in Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole, council tax increased by more than 6.7%.

Eric Swalwell's resignation on Monday comes just days after he suspended his campaign for California governor after the allegations emerged.

The seven-term politician did not specify when exactly he intends to step down.

Mr Swalwell has denied the allegations.

"I am aware of efforts to bring an immediate expulsion vote against me and other members. Expelling anyone in Congress without due process, within days of an allegation being made, is wrong," Mr Swalwell said.

"But it's also wrong for my constituents to have me distracted from my duties. Therefore, I plan to resign my seat in Congress."

The US's House of Representatives Ethics Committee has begun an investigation into the allegations, the panel said on Monday.

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A growing number of politicans, from both sides of the political divide, had called on Mr Swalwell to resign from Congress.

Discussions had taken place about a potential House vote to expel the congressman, but no action had been scheduled when he announced his resignation.

Mr Swalwell, who is originally from Iowa, was elected to the House of Representatives for the district east of San Francisco in 2012. He launched a presential campaign in April 2019 but stopped a few months later after failing to gain momentum with voters.

Overnight, the US president accused Pope Leo of being "WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy" and claimed that "if I wasn't in the White House, Leo wouldn't be in the Vatican".

In a spree of late-night Truth Social posts - including Trump-branded hotels on the Moon and other X posts from supporters - Mr Trump also shared an AI image of himself as Jesus Christ without comment.

He faced criticism over the image and removed it later on Monday.

When asked about the now-deleted post, Mr Trump insisted: "It's supposed to be me as a doctor making people better."

Iran war latest: Trump launches extraordinary attack on Pope

Speaking on The World with Yalda Hakim former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi hit out at Mr Trump, saying the AI image was "crazy" and as a Catholic he thinks it is "blasphemous".

The senator went on to say the image was "ridiculous", "silly" and said the president had "destroyed his credibility" by posting the picture.

Responses on Truth Social were atypically critical, with some followers urging the president to take the post down.

Brilyn ⁠Hollyhand, who served as the co-chair of the Republican National Committee Youth Advisory Council, wrote on X: "This is gross blasphemy. Faith is not a prop. You don't need to portray yourself as a savior when ‌your record should speak for itself."

Riley Gaines, a former collegiate swimmer and critic of transgender athletes in women's sports, who has appeared with Mr Trump at rallies, said she could not understand why he had posted the image.

"Does he actually think this?" she wrote. "Either way, two things are true. ‌1) a little humility would serve him well 2) God shall not be mocked."

It's not the first time that the US president has shared AI images of himself: Last year, as Mr Trump prepared to order the National Guard to deploy in Chicago, he posted an AI-generated parody image of himself from Apocalypse Now.

Mr Trump also defended his criticism of the Pope.

The president said: "He was very much against what I'm doing with regard to Iran. And you cannot have a nuclear Iran."

He said Pope Leo "would not be happy with the end result", before adding: "You have hundreds of millions of people dead, and it's not going to happen."

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Earlier, speaking to Sky's US partner NBC News, Pope Leo said "I have no fear of the Trump administration", adding that his appeals for peace were rooted in the gospel.

"We are not politicians," he said. "We don't deal with foreign policy with the same perspective he might understand it, but I do believe in the message of the gospel, as a peacemaker."

The Pope also told Reuters aboard the papal flight to Algiers that "I don't want to get into a debate with him... I don't think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing".

Sky News has contacted the Holy See for comment on the post and Mr Trump's remarks overnight.