Reform wants to bring blast furnaces back to Wales, says Farage

Reform UK's leader Nigel Farage has said his party would like to bring blast furnaces back to Port Talbot should it come to power.

During a visit to the town, Farage said his party wanted to see Wales "reindustrialise to prosper and grow", and would allow coal to be mined in Wales for use in the steelworks.

But he admitted it would not be an "easy" thing to do and would cost billions.

An industry source told BBC Wales that two furnaces that closed last year cannot be reused, with the structures containing hundreds of tonnes of solidified molten iron.

After he initially talked about reopening Port Talbot's furnaces at a press conference, Farage later said it would be "impossible" for the old structures to be reopened.

Labour First Minister Eluned Morgan said the policy was "absolute nonsense" and she wasn't sure "if people in Wales want to see their grandchildren going back down the pits".

Rivals in the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru said Farage was offering "empty" promises and policies.

Traditional steelmaking ended in Port Talbot last year as part of a plan to eventually move to greener electric arc, using scrap steel rather than iron ore.

Its operator Tata said it had been losing £1m a day. The site had two furnaces.

Challenged on how his ideas would be achieved if he won a Senedd election, Farage said it was an "ambition" the party has which would need UK government support.

Reopening the blast furnaces would require major investment from the public or private sector.

Farage is hoping Reform can come first at the Senedd elections in 2026.

Writing for WalesOnline, Farage said his party "unashamedly wants to see Wales reindustrialise to prosper and grow".

"We have said and say again that we think it's better to use British coal for British steel than imported coal.

"Which is why we would allow coal, if suitable, to be mined in Wales as part of Reform's long-term ambition to reopen the Port Talbot steelworks but we know this will not be quick or easy."

At the press conference Farage acknowledged that it would "cost in the low billions" to reopen the blast furnaces.

"Reopening a blast furnace is not an easy thing," he said.

"This one has closed. That was a tragedy."

"We're going to need cheaper energy. We're going to need much cheaper local coal, and we're going to need private business partners prepared to come into a joint venture with government to make it work."

"We have to do everything we can to try to start thinking about being more self-sufficient."

A steel industry source told BBC Wales that re-opening the blast furnaces would be "impossible" and said the current structures contain over 300 tonnes of solidified molten iron.

The source said the infrastructure at the Port Talbot plant was "beyond recovery" and that if somebody wanted to use blast furnace technology they would need to build a brand new steelworks at a cost of around £3bn.

The source also said customers were demanding greener, rather than carbon-intensive steel.

Asked whether in reality the furnace would need to be rebuilt, Farage said: "Once a blast furnace has been closed down, to actually reopen that particularly blast furnace is very very difficult. Nothing is impossible, but... it might be easier to build a new one."

Later, he appeared to more firmly suggest he was talking about building new furnaces.

In an interview with BBC Wales, he said. "I haven't for a moment suggested... that the existing furnaces can be redone. That's impossible."

Asked how a Welsh government could afford re-starting the blast furnaces, Farage said: "I've framed all of this very carefully into saying not we will do this once we are in control in Cardiff - this will be our ambition.

"We need the Westminster government to approve that as well. Who knows, that might be us in time."

"What's the cost of all these people out of work," he said.

Farage added that he was "not forcing people down pits" to mine for coal.

"If you offer people well paid jobs many will take them, even though we all accept mining is dangerous."

He said he didn't believe the electric arc furnace would "ever be switched on".

Tata plans to have the furnace operational by 2028.

Pressed on what his evidence was for the furnace not getting off the ground, Farage said with "our energy prices where [they are], you would be producing very very expensive secondary steel".

Farage said his campaign for the Senedd "starts in earnest today", saying the party was looking for 96 candidates to stand.

"Our aim is to win, our aim is to win a majority and our aim as a party is to govern in Wales," he said.

No party has ever won a majority in Cardiff Bay since devolution began in 1999 - a prospect that will be even harder to achieve with the new proportional representation system being introduced next year.

Recent polling has put reform second, either behind Labour or, most recently, Plaid Cymru.

Farage also announced that two independent councillors from Merthyr Tydfil, Andrew Barry and David Hughes, had joined Reform.

The party is currently without a Welsh leader and a prospective candidate for first minister.

At the press conference he declined to say when a Welsh leader would be picked, or whether there would be one in place by the summer.

Defending why, the party leader said the party is a "work in progress" and said individuals "will emerge over the course of the next few months who through merit will no doubt be in a position where they can qualify to be our lead member".

"We are not at that point of evolution just yet."

Asked if more high-profile politicians might be interested in defecting to Reform, Farage said there were "some names in Welsh politics I have been talking to".

In an interview with GB News, Morgan said: "What he was talking about today was reopening blast furnaces. Now, anybody who understands anything about steel knows that that would take a revolution and vast, vast amounts of money at a time when there's a glut of steel in the world.

"I'm not sure if the people in Wales want to see their grandchildren going back down the pits. You might want to try and appeal to those people, but the fact is that people in Wales are now interested in making sure that there are high quality jobs, and that's what we've been delivering in Wales".

The Welsh Conservatives' Senedd leader Darren Millar said: "Nigel Farage's empty and uncosted promises are nothing more than a mirage.

"The people of Port Talbot won't be taken for fools."

Referring actions taken on Port Talbot by the previous UK government, Tory Shadow Secretary for Wales Mims Davies said: "The aging blast furnaces were losing £1.5m a day - a colossal loss no company or government could possibly sustain - and we created a long-term viable future for the next generation while retaining the skills and knowledge needed at this key site."

Heledd Fychan, of Plaid Cymru, said: "Today, Reform have shown us what they offer Wales, empty headlines and nonsensical policies.

"Farage has parachuted himself into a community recently devastated by UK government inaction, and is taking advantage of the loss by claiming to reopen the blast furnaces, something the industry have already told us is impossible."

Welsh Liberal Democrat MP David Chadwick said: "Mining was our past, but it can't be our future.

"I know my relatives in south Wales worked hard to ensure that their children and grandchildren wouldn't have to do the dangerous work of going down the pits and for future generations to have better opportunities in life."

Greenpeace's Mel Evans added: "Bringing back the British coal industry has about as much chance of success as resurrecting dinosaurs."

By Gareth Lewis, BBC Wales political editor

There was a very nostalgic feel to Nigel Farage's appearance in Port Talbot.

The setting was a refurbished art-deco cinema; there was an opening video montage of a Wales that has long gone, with smoking chimneys and working pits.

That Farage's plans to 're-industrialise' Wales's heavy industries are a little light on detail does not matter for the broad seam of people he's tapping into, many of whom feel left behind.

"Giving people hope" was important, he told me.

That said it would be interesting to see what hope he has of persuading Welsh youngsters to follow their fathers and grandfathers underground.