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Nigel Farage will call to reopen the Port Talbot steelworks today in a major campaign pitch to Welsh voters ahead of the 2026 Senedd elections.
The Reform UK leader is heading to South Wales today, where he is set to lay out his plans to bring traditional steelmaking back to British shores.
Having already put his party’s weight behind saving British Steel in Scunthorpe earlier this year, Farage will again back domestic industry in a drive to end Labour’s 123 years of electoral success in Wales.
He “will tap into the hearts and minds of a deeply patriotic nation that feels betrayed and forgotten about by Labour”, a party source said.
“We are the main challenger to Labour in Wales. A vote for the Conservatives is a vote for Labour,” they added.
Port Talbot was the largest steelmaking plant in the UK until its two blast furnaces were controversially shut down in September 2024.
In their stead, the Government has backed plans for a £1.25billion electric arc furnace at the Indian firm Tata’s steelworks, with a switch-on date set for 2027 as part of a push towards greener production.
Labour insists the two steelworks are in different situations.
And while Farage is set to acknowledge that the task of bringing industry back to Wales will neither be quick nor easy, he will also push for a return to coal mining as part of Reform’s “long-term ambition to reopen Port Talbot steel”.
FOLLOW BELOW FOR LIVE UPDATES THROUGHOUT THE DAY…
Labour minister admits Rachel Reeves’s ‘difficult’ spending review will leave departments ‘stretched’
A Labour minister has admitted that Rachel Reeves’s looming spending review will leave departments “stretched” and be “difficult” amid reports that the Chancellor is in a stand-off with Yvette Cooper’s Home Office over funding.
Technology Minister Chris Bryant said: “That period of austerity where I think previous governments simply cut all public service budgets just because they believed that was what you had to do is over.
“But, secondly, we are investing, but it’s not just about spending money, you have to get return, and that means we have to have change and we have to have a plan for change in every single one of our public services.”
He also talked up Labour’s defence and health funding to Times Radio – but added: “There are going to be other parts of the budget that are going to be much more stretched and be difficult.”
His words come as Cooper is holding out for a funding settlement from the Treasury. She is the last minister to be doing so.
The Home Secretary’s allies warn that Labour’s crime targets and its push to hire 13,000 new neighborhood police officers are at risk without a serious cash injection.
Reeves is said to be promising a real-terms increase in police funding to try and secure Cooper’s sign-off.
But The Times reports that said funding will only come through cuts to other areas of the Home Office’s day-to-day budget.
Bryant will be appearing on GB News Breakfast at around 9am – we’ll bring you all the top lines from his interview on this live blog.
British Steel could be ‘left in limbo’ as Chinese owners push for £1BILLION tax-funded payout
Jingye, the Chinese owners of British Steel, is locked in a stand-off with the UK Government over a £1billion compensation claim
GETTY
Jingye, the Chinese owners of British Steel, is locked in a stand-off with the UK Government over a £1billion compensation claim which could leave Britain’s only “virgin” steelmaker in limbo for the rest of the year.
The firm was booted out of the Scunthorpe works by the Government in April following the passage of an emergency Bill.
The Chinese company still holds shares in British Steel – and is demanding a staggering compensation fee to write off its investment over the past five years.
Sources told The Times Jingye’s total investment in British Steel ran “into the billions”.
And in a further blow to the works, Donald Trump could soon move to levy 50 per cent tariffs on British Steel because its owners are Chinese.
Those could come as soon as “on or after July 9”, if it is determined that the UK has not complied with the transatlantic Economic Prosperity Deal (EPD) signed at the start of May.
The EPD says Britain “will work to promptly meet US requirements on the security of the supply chains of steel and aluminium products intended for export to the United States and on the nature of ownership of relevant production facilities”.
It is understood that in the case of British Steel, this specifically relates to concerns within the Trump administration that the company could be used as a backdoor to dump Chinese exports on the US.
RECAP: As Nigel Farage lays down the gauntlet in Wales… How the Reform UK leader challenged Keir Starmer to head-to-head working men’s club debate
With Nigel Farage heading to Wales today in a bid to break decades of Labour dominance next year, GB News is looking back at a similar campaign in the Red Wall just days ago.
In late May, the Reform chief challenged Sir Keir Starmer to a one-on-one debate in a working men’s club in the English industrial heartland.
Confirming reports that he would lay out such a challenge to the Prime Minister, Farage said: “He has challenged me to a head-to-head debate some time between now and the next election. The last time this happened to me was with Nick Clegg.
“I’m very happy, Prime Minister, to accept this invitation – but I don’t want to wait four more years.
“I’ve got an idea… Why don’t the Prime Minister and I go to a working men’s club in the Red Wall, and members can sit there and ask us questions.”
READ THE FULL STORY ON NIGEL FARAGE VS KEIR STARMER HERE