- Caerphilly castle - 24th October 2025
- Reach for the stars… - 24th October 2025
- Feet of clay - 23rd October 2025
Senior executives and politicians at all the major parties in Wales are today breathing an enormous collective sigh of relief that the seemingly impregnable fortress of Caerphilly was not breached by Reform UK.
The Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru (Plaid) won last night, securing 15,960 votes – and the victor Lindsay Whittle cried as the result was announced that he was to return to the Welsh Parliament/Senedd Cymru (WP/SC).
This by-election was widely regarded as a two-horse race between Plaid and Reform UK, with the result marking a considerable blow for Nigel Farage.
One leading Welsh politician from a different party told our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry: “I suppose I shouldn’t say this, because I am from another party, but we are all breathing a sigh of relief that Reform didn’t get in”.
However the official line from mainstream parties in Wales was rather different.
Labour’s Deputy First Minister (DFM), Huw Irranca-Davies, said the Prime Minister (PM) must “get back to bread and butter things” such as the cost of living, instead of focussing on immigration.
He added: “There’s been a lot of Reform politicians, including the candidate, who wanted to talk about nothing but small boats et cetera.
“Now that’s interesting because even in next May, small boats and immigration are not on the ticket in the Welsh general election for the Senedd“
“So we’ve got to get better.
“If … a really good campaign with a really good Labour candidate in Richard (loses), then we’ve got to talk about how do we get back to bread and butter things: cost of living, the state of the local community, the high street, the green spaces, the money in people’s pockets
“And that’s a task for both Welsh Labour and UK Labour as well.”
The Labour First Minister (FM) Eluned Morgan congratulated Mr Whittle and declared: “We take our share of the responsibility for this result. We are listening, we are learning the lessons, and we will be come back stronger”.
The Conservatives and the Welsh Liberal Democrats were among the parties who lost their deposits.
During the campaign it had looked close, and at one stage we received information that Plaid canvassers feared Reform UK would win because they were getting a lot of support from voters on the doorstep.
But in the end Mr Powell received 12,113 votes – denying a victory that would have strengthened claims that the party can convert a large lead in opinion polls into election wins.
When the 2.10 am result was announced at the count in the town’s leisure centre, Mr Farage – who’d been campaigning for Mr Powell on polling day – was nowhere to be seen, and according to Plaid supporters there, long before the declaration he was halfway down the M4 on his way back to London.
At a UK level, though, the rise of Reform UK has clearly rattled the other parties, and there have been significant defections such as the former Conservative Assembly Member Laura Anne Jones.
Others to have gone include the one-time Welsh Secretary David Jones, and ex-Tory Chairman Sir Jake Berry.
Reform UK failed to win any WP/SC members in 2021, but came second in 13 Welsh constituencies at the General Election (GE) last summer.
Polling by Survation conducted earlier this year, put Labour on 27 per cent, with Plaid and Reform UK on 24 per cent each.
The new voting system will elect a larger WP/SC in 2026, with 96 seats instead of the current 60, and will use a list system that aims to better reflect how the public voted.
Yet it may not all be plain sailing for Mr Farage, if GEs are any guide, and the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has proclaimed: “I have ruled out a pact with Nigel Farage in the Westminster parliament”.
But a victory for Plaid in Caerphilly last night was NOT ruled out…
The memories of Phil’s, remarkable decades long award-winning career in journalism (during which major political stories were often reported) as he was gripped by the rare and incurable neurological disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’.Order the book now!
On Monday – Phil recalls how certain other politicians behave when they win power.
The day after – why disturbing revelations that China accessed “vast amounts” of sensitive information, including intelligence briefings, and accusations Russia is also behind internet hacking designed to subvert key continental European elections, highlight once more how The Eye too has been targeted by hackers.
