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Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said he is not disappointed with his party’s failure to win the Caerphilly Senedd by-election.

Speaking at a press conference on grooming gangs on Monday October 27, Mr Farage said: “I thought at the start of the day we’d get 12,000 votes – we did. I thought 12,000 votes would be enough – it wasn’t.”

Mr Farage, who visited Caerphilly on polling day but did not attend the count, said tactical voting had played a role, though not to the extent suggested by the “London media”.

Reform UK candidate Llŷr Powell was defeated by Plaid Cymru’s Lindsay Whittle, who was sworn in on Friday as Caerphilly’s new Senedd Member. Mr Whittle got 47% of the vote with a majority of 3,848.

It was widely expected for Reform to take the seat, vacated by the sudden death of Labour MS Hefin David, with an opinion poll issued a week before the vote putting the party ahead.

It is understood Reform spent significant sums trying to win the by-election for it to get an electoral foothold, ahead of May’s general Senedd election.

Veteran Mr Whittle has served as a local councillor for almost 50 years, and including Westminster contests, this was his 14th time standing for the Caerphilly seat.

While not naming Mr Whittle directly, Mr Farage acknowledged his local popularity: “This was an incredibly well-known figure. And when we looked at the boxes, the boxes for the centre of Caerphilly — you literally could have weighed the Plaid vote. So many people who knew this guy turned out to vote for him.”

Asked by PA Media on his thoughts regarding the result, Mr Farage replied: “Am I disappointed? Not really. I think 36% was pretty blooming good.”

Looking ahead to next May’s general Senedd election, Mr Farage said that if Reform’s vote share were repeated, the new constituency area of Blaenau Gwent Caerffili Rhymni would return three Plaid Cymru members and three Reform members under the incoming system of proportional representation.

“I can’t be disappointed with that at all,” he added.

‘Now u can f*** off home‘

Following the by-election result, graffiti appeared on the shutters of Reform’s pop-up office on Cardiff Road, saying: “Now u can f*** off home”.

The graffiti has since been removed.

During the campaign, the party’s candidate Mr Powell alleged he had been intimidated at his home late at night, and said people were ringing his doorbell and banging his door.

A Reform UK Wales spokesperson said: “We’re absolutely determined to show the extreme left that violence and intimidation have no place in our democracy.

“Reform represents the views of a huge proportion of decent, hardworking Welsh people, and we will not be silenced.

“Nothing will stop us from fighting to make sure that people from left-behind communities have a seat at the table in politics.”

In a post on social media, Mr Whittle condemned the graffiti.