Nigel Farage will name to reopen the Port Talbot steelworks right this moment in a significant marketing campaign pitch to Welsh voters forward of the 2026 Senedd elections.
The Reform UK chief is heading to South Wales right this moment, the place he’s set to put out his plans to carry conventional steelmaking again to British shores.
Having already put his celebration’s weight behind saving British Metal in Scunthorpe earlier this yr, Farage will once more again home business in a drive to finish 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 celebration supply mentioned.
“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 biggest steelmaking plant within the UK till its two blast furnaces had been controversially shut down in September 2024.
Of their stead, the Authorities has backed plans for a £1.25billion electrical arc furnace on the Indian agency Tata’s steelworks, with a switch-on date set for 2027 as a part of a push in direction of greener manufacturing.
Labour insists the 2 steelworks are in numerous conditions.
And whereas Farage is about to acknowledge that the duty of bringing business again to Wales will neither be fast nor simple, he may also push for a return to coal mining as a part of Reform’s “long-term ambition to reopen Port Talbot steel”.
FOLLOW BELOW FOR LIVE UPDATES THROUGHOUT THE DAY…
Nato boss blasts ‘wishful thinking’ as alliance set to demand Britain hikes defence spending by BILLIONS
Mark Rutte and Sir Keir Starmer will meet once more right this moment
PA
Nato Secretary Normal Mark Rutte will lay into “wishful thinking” in a fiery speech right this moment as he seems to persuade Sir Keir Starmer to hike defence spending by billions of kilos.
The Prime Minister has dedicated to spend 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence from April 2027, with a purpose of accelerating that to three per cent over the following Parliament, a timetable which may stretch to 2034.
However Rutte has known as on members of the bloc spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence as a part of a strengthened funding plan for the alliance.
“Wishful thinking will not keep us safe”, the previous Dutch PM will say in a name for Nato to turn into a “stronger, fairer and more lethal alliance”.
“The fact is, we need a quantum leap in our collective defence. The fact is, we must have more forces and capabilities to implement our defence plans in full. The fact is, danger will not disappear even when the war in Ukraine ends.”
Labour minister admits Rachel Reeves’s ‘difficult’ spending assessment will go away departments ‘stretched’
A Labour minister has admitted that Rachel Reeves’s looming spending assessment will go away departments “stretched” and be “difficult” amid reviews that the Chancellor is in a stand-off with Yvette Cooper’s Dwelling Workplace over funding.
Expertise Minister Chris Bryant mentioned: “That interval of austerity the place I feel earlier governments merely reduce all public service budgets simply because they believed that was what you needed 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 additionally talked up Labour’s defence and well being funding to Occasions Radio – however added: “There are going to be other parts of the budget that are going to be much more stretched and be difficult.”
His phrases come as Cooper is holding out for a funding settlement from the Treasury. She is the final minister to be doing so.
The Dwelling Secretary’s allies warn that Labour’s crime targets and its push to rent 13,000 new neighborhood law enforcement officials are in danger with no critical money injection.
Reeves is claimed to be promising a real-terms improve in police funding to attempt to safe Cooper’s sign-off.
However The Occasions reviews that mentioned funding will solely come by cuts to different areas of the Dwelling Workplace’s day-to-day price range.
Bryant will probably be showing on GB Information Breakfast at round 9am – we’ll carry you all the highest strains from his interview on this reside weblog.
British Metal could possibly be ‘left in limbo’ as Chinese language homeowners push for £1BILLION tax-funded payout
Jingye, the Chinese language homeowners of British Metal, is locked in a stand-off with the UK Authorities over a £1billion compensation declare
GETTY
Jingye, the Chinese language homeowners of British Metal, is locked in a stand-off with the UK Authorities over a £1billion compensation declare which may go away Britain’s solely “virgin” steelmaker in limbo for the remainder of the yr.
The agency was booted out of the Scunthorpe works by the Authorities in April following the passage of an emergency Invoice.
The Chinese language firm nonetheless holds shares in British Metal – and is demanding a staggering compensation charge to put in writing off its funding over the previous 5 years.
Sources advised The Occasions Jingye’s whole funding in British Metal ran “into the billions”.
And in an extra blow to the works, Donald Trump may quickly transfer to levy 50 per cent tariffs on British Metal as a result of its homeowners are Chinese language.
These may come as quickly as “on or after July 9”, whether it is decided that the UK has not complied with the transatlantic Financial Prosperity Deal (EPD) signed at first of Might.
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’s understood that within the case of British Metal, this particularly pertains to considerations inside the Trump administration that the corporate could possibly be used as a backdoor to dump Chinese language exports on the US.
RECAP: As Nigel Farage lays down the gauntlet in Wales… How the Reform UK chief challenged Keir Starmer to head-to-head working males’s membership debate
With Nigel Farage heading to Wales right this moment in a bid to interrupt many years of Labour dominance subsequent yr, GB Information is wanting again at the same marketing campaign within the Pink Wall simply days in the past.
In late Might, the Reform chief challenged Sir Keir Starmer to a one-on-one debate in a working males’s membership within the English industrial heartland.
Confirming reviews that he would lay out such a problem to the Prime Minister, Farage mentioned: “He has challenged me to a head-to-head debate a while between now and the following election. The final time this occurred to me was with Nick Clegg.
“I’m very completely satisfied, Prime Minister, to simply accept this invitation – however I don’t need to wait 4 extra 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.”
