Welcome to The i Paper’s new opinion series exploring the extraordinary ascent of a growing power in British politics : the Rise of Reform.

At 61, Nigel Farage isn’t old – at least, if one’s measure is the age at which the state pension is drawn. And at 30, as he was when first contesting a parliamentary election in Eastleigh, he wasn’t exactly young. (The age of 24 was the cut-off for youth used by most official bodies last year).

Those facts are an essential introduction to Farage as a working politician. In 1994, Kemi Badenoch, his competitor on the right of British politics, was 14, studying at a secondary school in Nigeria.

What about the leaders of other opposition parties? Zack Polanski was starting out at secondary school in Stockport. Zara Sultana was a one-year-old baby in B

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