Farage entered the corridor as if somebody had slipped him a blue tablet

Nigel Farage declared ‘we are skint’. He meant the country, not his party Reform. He said it again. ‘We are skint.’ So skint, indeed, that he proposed billions more in public spending, as well as cutting taxes.

A little man from Sky News worked out that his budget was three times madder than Liz Truss’s. Mr Farage shrugged. ‘We’re radical.’

His sums were so, er, adventurous that it was only apt that the front of Reform’s election manifesto had a photograph of an electric-blue-suited Farage reaching for his wallet pocket. Behind him in shot was a doorway just like that of 10 Downing Street.

Not that he liked ‘manifesto’. He argued that when voters hear that noun nowadays, ‘the immediate word-association is “lie” ’. Hard to argue with that.

We were in South Wales at Merthyr Tydfil, one of the poorer towns in the country. The carpets at this community centre stank of beer. Arriving at noon the first thing I saw was a wild-haired fellow chewing a toothbrush in the street. Reform’s treasury spokesman?

Reform UK chairman Richard Tice (left) and party leader Nigel Farage launch ‘Our Contract with You’ in Merthyr, Wales

Talking to reporters after the event, Mr Farage was muted in his support for Ukraine. Disappointing. Should such a champion of national sovereignty not want Kyiv to be free of the old Soviet empire?

Merthyr may be on its uppers but it is hospitable. An array of sandwiches had been provided. ‘Britain Needs Reform’ said a banner in the dance hall where the ceiling tiles were collapsing to betray wires. Britain needs ham and margarine baps, too.

One of Merthyr’s achievements was the discovery of Viagra. The way Mr Farage entered the hall, someone may have slipped a little blue helper into his egg and cress. He sashayed in like a night-club manager prowling the cabaret tables, one eyebrow shimmering, bottom quite tight and a droll expression on his suntanned face. Tingling with assurance. Tumescent with ambition.

His opening words were throaty and self-regarding. ‘Guess who’s back,’ he gurgled. ‘I did not for a moment think I’d be here again.’

The reason, he said, was that the country was in decline economically, socially and culturally. ‘We’ve begun to forget who we are.’ Well, some of us. Self-doubt does not afflict the leader of Reform.

A conversational speech ensued, delivered with minimal recourse to notes. Was he flatter than normal? The voice was thickened by a cold, perhaps. He said ‘frankly’ four or five times. That tends to happen when he is busking it.

He joked about the recent TV debates he did alongside Penny Mordaunt and Angela Rayner but they may have taken their toll on his stamina.

Farage at the ITV debate on July 4. He joked about the recent TV debates he did alongside Penny Mordaunt and Angela Rayner but they may have taken their toll on his stamina

He promised he would not make personal attacks but there were tart digs at Lord Cameron, who seems to be the person most in his gunsights at present. ‘Talk about comebacks, crikey!’ guffawed Mr Farage. Differences between him and his lordship were not entirely personal.

Talking to reporters after the event, Mr Farage was muted in his support for Ukraine. Disappointing. Should such a champion of national sovereignty not want Kyiv to be free of the old Soviet empire?

He explained that holding this non-manifesto launch in Merthyr was a way of publicising Labour’s decades of failure in Wales. His pitch was to the low-paid, those on benefits, people at the bottom of the pile who were being done over by the ‘unholy triumvirate’ of big banks, big politics and ‘the giant global corporates’.

He expressed sympathy for the out-of-work and said it was wrong to call them ‘lazy scroungers’. Farage the pinko! But he was invigoratingly right-wing on immigration. Newcomers should receive no benefits for five years and only then if they have obeyed the law and paid their taxes.

After a while he croakily handed over to his colleague Richard Tice. Suddenly all the energy left the room.

The snappers ignored the burbling Tice and took photographs of Mr Farage, who was by now glugging water behind a glass fire-door. He’s a one-man show.

For all the froggy smiles and ‘frankly’s and bouncing on the balls of his feet, that one man seemed to be feeling the pace.

Also attending the event was a springer spaniel, name of George; asked what he made of it, George replied ‘barking’.