Analysis: Caerphilly By-Election Result Shows How Nigel Farage Could Be Reform's Achilles Heel

<div><img src="https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/68fb18bf180000a889e8f32d.jpeg?ops=scalefit_630_noupscale" alt="Could Nigel Farage's divisiveness be Reform UK's Achilles Heel?" data-caption="Could Nigel Farage's divisiveness be Reform UK's Achilles Heel?" data-credit-link-back="" data-credit="via Associated Press" />Could Nigel Farage's divisiveness be Reform UK's Achilles Heel?</div><div class="content-list-component text"><p><a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/nigel-farage/">Nigel Farage </a>hasn’t had much to feel unhappy about of late.</p><p>With <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/reform-uk/">Reform UK r</a>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.</p><p>But <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/blow-for-nigel-farage-as-reform-uk-fail-to-win-key-by-election_uk_68fb05a9e4b03bb1113167f0">Plaid Cymru’s historic victory in the Caerphilly by-election</a> is an important reality check for Farage and his party.</p><p>They were supremely confident that their man, Llyr Powell, would be the one to end more than a century of <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/labour-party/">Labour</a> dominance in the seat.</p><p>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.</p><p>In the end, however, the Welsh nationalists won a relatively comfortable 3,848 majority on a highly impressive 47% of the vote, compared to Reform’s 36%.</p><p>Labour, who won the seat with a 5,000 majority fou