Nigel Farage vows to reindustrialise Wales in Port Talbot speech

Times

2 days ago

Nigel Farage said his party chairman 'lost his rag' when he quit last week, as the Reform leader sought to draw a line under reports of infighting with the launch of his campaign to take power in Wales next May.
In his first extended public appearance since Zia Yusuf's resignation and surprise return, Farage said he had 'forgiven' his colleague and pledged to build a 'much broader team' before elections to the Welsh Senedd next year.
Farage said he had worked 'inseparably' alongside Yusuf but admitted the former chairman had 'lost his rag' when he abruptly quit Reform last Thursday.
He said: 'Was I annoyed with Zia on Thursday? Well, I wasn't exactly chuffed … but, you know what? People make mistakes. He came back to me and honestly said, 'Look I'm really sorry'. And I've forgiven him. It's behind us, it's done.'
Farage dismissed comparisons between Reform's recent travails and the internal warfare that blighted his leadership of Ukip but admitted his party needed to prove it could build a 'broad-based team' before next year's devolved elections in Wales and Scotland. Pledging to grant Reform's Welsh branch full autonomy, he said: 'It is about much more than me.'
Farage was speaking in Port Talbot, the steelmaking town near Swansea, to set out Reform's plans to reindustrialise Wales, but opened his speech with a lengthy explanation of Yusuf's resignation and return.
It came after the former chairman, who has now returned to Reform to oversee its programme of cost-cutting in local councils, told the BBC the row had been 'a storm in a teacup'.
Farage said: 'Yes, we did hit a speed bump last week. It could be that we were driving more than the recommended 20mph, as is the limit here in Wales.'
He went on to say a Reform government in Cardiff would reopen coal mines in the south Wales valleys, as well as the mothballed blast furnaces at Port Talbot. 'Our ambition is to reindustrialise Wales,' Farage said.
Farage criticised plans by the government and Tata, Port Talbot's Indian owner, to build a £1.25 billion electric arc furnace to replace its two blast furnaces, which were shut down last September. 'It is, by its name, using vast amounts of electricity in what is one of the most expensive industrial electricity markets in the world,' he said.
However, Farage declined to set out a timetable for the reopening or rebuilding of a blast furnace at Port Talbot. Steel industry experts say restarting the existing furnaces is likely to be impossible and the Reform leader admitted his flagship policy was 'no easy thing' and would probably cost 'low billions' or more.
The steelworks in Port Talbot
ALAMY
Having accused Labour and the Conservatives of betraying Wales's industrial history, he sought to dismiss arguments over cost, saying: 'People talk about the cost of these things. What's the cost of all these people out of work? What's the social cost of all these communities destroyed?'
In a direct appeal to young men, Farage promised to open new technical colleges in sectors ranging from engineering to AI in an attempt to return skilled work to south Wales, where youth unemployment and child poverty are both high. He insisted that he was not 'forcing people down the pit' and, challenged on whether his policies were feasible, he said: 'Ambitions are not false promises.'
Reform strategists believe Farage's pitch will appeal to disadvantaged, post-industrial constituencies mostly held by Labour in south Wales. Most polling for next year's Senedd elections shows him vying for first place with Plaid Cymru, the left-leaning Welsh nationalist party.
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Controversial electoral reforms introduced by the Welsh Labour government have expanded the number of Senedd seats to 96 and make it unlikely that any one party will have a majority.
Farage insisted the new proportional D'Hondt system would benefit Reform, as it had Ukip in elections to the European parliament. 'It's something that's been very kind to me ever since 1999,' he said, adding: 'Our aim is to win. Our aim is to win a majority and our aim as a party is to govern in Wales — and I believe it is achievable.'
Farage was joined by two cabinet members from Merthyr Tydfil council, Andrew Barry and David Hughes, both independents who announced their defections before his speech. He conceded that Reform was 'not quite at the point of evolution' where it could announce a candidate for first minister.
Asked by The Times whether he was willing to fund his pledges by using the Welsh parliament's powers to levy additional taxes, Farage instead repeated his promise to cut 'excessive spending' from the public sector and proposed to seek private investment from multinational employers.
Likening a Reform-led Wales to Ireland's booming Celtic Tiger economy of the 1990s and early 2000s, he said: 'One of the reasons Ireland was so successful in the 1990s wasn't just because of their tax rate but because they had a workforce with the right skills.'