Reform is no longer Starmer's only problem

Many of us lobby-brained political journalists woke this morning with a surprised glance at our phones. Because it wasn’t the right-wing insurgents who swept aside Labour’s Welsh stronghold of Caerphilly – it was Plaid Cymru, the centre-left challenger .

Interesting, isn’t it? If you’ve read the papers or scrolled social media lately, you’d think the next election was already won and Nigel Farage was measuring up the curtains for Downing Street. Britain is furious – the story goes – at immigrants, at elites, at everything – and Reform UK is the only party bold enough to channel that rage.

And even if you didn’t quite buy the idea that every disillusioned voter is now inexplicably enraged by their neighbour, it’s clear that this narrative has swept No 10. Starmer has been fixated on R