
Farage to call for Port Talbot blast furnaces to reopen
Nigel Farage will call for Port Talbot's blast furnaces to reopen after they were shut down last year as Reform UK sets its sights on the Welsh elections in 2026.
On a visit to the South Wales town, the party leader is expected to say that the resumption of traditional steelmaking should be a long-term ambition, a spokesman said.
Mr Farage believes his party has a chance of ending Labour's long-standing dominance in Wales during the Senedd elections next year amid opinion poll momentum and gains made at the local polls last month.
The Government has backed plans for a new £1.25 billion electric arc furnace at the Tata steelworks, with the switch-on due in 2027 as part of the push towards greener production.
The plant's last blast furnace was shut down in September 2024.
Some MPs have said workers in South Wales have been let down in comparison with those retaining jobs in Scunthorpe, where ministers took control of the steelworks to prevent the closure of its blast furnaces.
The Government has said the two steelworks were in different situations.
Mr Farage's speech comes as Reform seeks to draw a line under internal clashes after chairman Zia Yusuf quit the party on Thursday only to return 48 hours later, saying the resignation had been 'born out of exhaustion'.
It followed a row in which he described a question to the Prime Minister concerning a ban on burkas from his party's newest MP, Sarah Pochin, as 'dumb'.
Mr Yusuf will now have four jobs, including leading the party's plans to cut public spending via the so-called 'UK Doge', based on the US Department of Government Efficiency which was led by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Mr Farage's spokesman said: 'He will focus part of the speech on Keir Starmer's year of failure in the UK as a whole but especially Wales. Of course for years Welsh Labour blamed all issues on the Tories in Westminster, now their excuse is gone and the game is up for them.'
Reform had also been hoping to cause an upset last week in Scotland, where it was fighting a Holyrood by-election in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, but Labour secured a shock victory.
Scotland's First Minister John Swinney had claimed the contest would be a 'two-horse race' between the SNP and Reform but Mr Farage's party came third with 7,088 votes to Labour's 8,559 and the SNP's 7,957.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Telegraph
26 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Reform's new chairman is Most Haunted TV star
Reform UK's new chairman is a former TV presenter known for fronting a reality show about hunting ghosts. Dr David Bull, who is also an ex-hospital doctor, will take over from Zia Yusuf, who dramatically resigned from the party last week before rejoining just two days later. Dr Bull is a former deputy leader of Reform, having held the role from 2021 to 2024, when he was replaced by Richard Tice on Nigel Farage's return as leader. For around a year, the 56-year-old shared the job with Ben Habib, who has since quit the party and become an outspoken supporter of Reform critic Rupert Lowe. Before entering politics, Dr Bull worked as a TV host, starting as an on-screen doctor for Sky TV in the mid-1990s before joining Newsround, the children's news show, and going on to present the paranormal series Most Haunted Live. He has also appeared on BBC's Watchdog, going on to host the spin-off Watchdog Healthcheck and the live science show Tomorrow's World. He is now a presenter on TalkTV, the news channel owned by Rupert Murdoch, which went online-only last year. Dr Bull, who reportedly backs 'binning the burka', was revealed as Reform's new chairman by the Daily Mail. He will replace Mr Yusuf, who stepped down from his position in spectacular fashion last Thursday before rejoining in a new role on Saturday. His resignation followed a disagreement within the party over whether to ban the burka, an idea he branded 'dumb'. Senior Reform figures also said that Mr Yusuf's professional style, born of his former career as a Goldman Sachs banker, had led to personality clashes at the top of the party. The former chairman will now lead Reform's so-called UK Doge team, inspired by the US Department of Government Efficiency set up by Donald Trump and run by Elon Musk. Dr Bull is also a former doctor and has written two books: Cool and Celibate? Sex and No Sex and What Every Girl Should Know. According to his website, he qualified as a doctor in 1993 and went on to work for the NHS at St Mary's Hospital, Ealing Hospital and the Whittington Hospital, all in London, in the fields of general medicine, emergency medicine and general practice. He was briefly a Brexit Party MEP and initially ran as the Tory candidate for Brighton Pavilion in 2009 before stepping down to lead a Conservative policy review on sexual health. A Reform source told the Daily Mail: 'He looks and sounds good and he's been out and proud for years, so we have no worries about any skeletons in his closet.'


The Sun
26 minutes ago
- The Sun
Samsung fans can get a FREE £600 tech bundle including a Galaxy tablet, watch & earbuds in mega giveaway – here's how
SAMSUNG is launching a huge summer giveaway, with tech fans able to get their hands on a free bundle of gadgets, worth £600. Android users are in with a chance to bag a Galaxy Watch7, Galaxy Buds3 Pro and Galaxy Tab A9+ completely free, but you'll have to be quick to snap up the deal. 1 To become the proud owner of the new set of tech, you need to purchase a Galaxy S25, S25+ or S25 Ultra phone from Currys owned retailer The order comes with the free air buds and watch, and you can then head over to the Samsung website to claim your free tablet. All together the three pieces of tech come to a whopping £596, making this deal seem too good to be true. The best value phone you can purchase to get your hands on the freebies is the £24.99 per month plan with iD Mobile which comes with 500 GB of data on a Samsung Galaxy S25 128GB phone. The 24 month contract requires a £79 upfront cost, however, it does also come with a six month free trial of Google One AI Premium, worth £113.94. has not confirmed an end date for the air bud and watch freebies, but said that the price drop will end at 4pm today, June 10. The free tablet is only available on order purchased before June 26. In total, the plan will cost you £702.76 over the two year period. This is cheaper than buying the phone directly from Samsung, which will set you back £799. If you would prefer to purchase the S25+ model, iD Mobile's £39.99 a month plan (with a £79 upfront cost) is the best value deal. Samsung Galaxy S25 launch Or, if you fancy splashing out on the S25 Ultra, you can choose the £44.99 a month deal, and pay £119 upfront. Although may not be the first store that shoppers think of when purchasing a new handset, this incredible deal will likely win many customers over. Plus, shoppers have been raving about the store on Trustpilot. One reviewer said: "My go-to. Seamless and such good deals to be had. "I would not look anywhere else.' Another said: "Fast and efficient. Great choice of phones and contracts at the best prices I could find after a comprehensive search of a large number of alternatives. "Clear communication, and my phone was delivered on the day and time it was stated by the company. "Everything about the experience was good.' A third person said: "Such a simple and super quick process to upgrade to a new phone. "Had an issue online but called the call centre and was resolved by a lovely and helpful lady, the new phone arrived the next day."


Telegraph
27 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Reeves to give speech ahead of Spending Review
Rachel Reeves is set to deliver a speech at the GMB union conference as the Chancellor prepares to unveil her eagerly-awaited Spending Review tomorrow. Ms Reeves is expected to use the address to the union in Brighton today to hail the Government's new £16.7 billion commitment to nuclear power projects. The Chancellor has signed off on £14.2 billion of investment to build the new Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk. Meanwhile, Rolls-Royce has been named as the preferred bidder to build small modular reactors (SMRs) in a programme backed by £2.5 billion of taxpayers' cash. The funding is part of a wider programme of infrastructure investment worth tens of billions of pounds over the next decade which the Chancellor will confirm at the Spending Review in the House of Commons tomorrow. The review is expected to set out real-terms funding cuts for numerous Whitehall departments and the Chancellor's speech in Brighton will be watched closely for any clues about where the squeeze could be felt the most.