Nigel Farage hasn’t had much to feel unhappy about of late.

With Reform UK r iding high in the polls, his supporters and even the man himself are allowing themselves to dream about the prospect of him becoming prime minister.

But Plaid Cymru’s historic victory in the Caerphilly by-election is an important reality check for Farage and his party.

They were supremely confident that their man, Llyr Powell, would be the one to end more than a century of Labour dominance in the seat.

Opinion polls showed them running neck-and-neck with Plaid’s Lindsay Whittle as Reform – who received just 459 votes the last time the seat was up for grabs – made good on Farage’s pledge to “throw everything” at winning it.

In the end, however, the Welsh nationalists won a relatively comfortable 3,848 m

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