I n what counts as breaking news on this slowest of slow Wednesdays in Westminster – most eyes were on the US midterm elections – it was nice to be able to report that Nigel Farage was in the Commons for prime minister’s questions. Not something you can often say.

Despite Reform UK tanking in the polls, Nige still regards himself as the official opposition and considers it a major insult that he isn’t given six questions every week. Today he was happy not to get one. Not even Nige’s magic shield of narcissism would have been able to save him from hubris. An embarrassment of epic proportions.

On Tuesday night, Farage had used his GB News show to insist that the American pollsters had got it wrong. Sticking his neck on the line against what he dismissed as “the liberal consensus”, he was adamant that the Republicans would come good. How could they not, with Donald Trump as president and more than $400m of Elon Musk’s money behind them?

Only it didn’t quite turn out that way.…