Over the last few weeks, Reform UK have been honing their sights on Wales. On 9 June, Farage made an appearance in Port Talbot to deliver a speech, where he laid out Reform’s bold plans to ‘reindustrialise’ Wales, should they win in the May 2026 Senedd elections.
These plans include restarting coal mining in Wales, reopening the blast furnaces in Port Talbot, and a focus of government funding for industrial jobs and training across the South Wales Valleys.
Electoral dry run
Reform are strategically stepping up their efforts in Wales. The party has recently taken on four new Wales full timers, and has been experimenting with different messaging and emphases in recent by-elections to see what resonates best with voters.
They are also pouring extensive resources into local social media campaigns and closely monitoring other political parties’ social media – all except purportedly the Welsh Tories, who are so insignificant that they don’t feel the need.
It seems relatively clear Reform are treating the May 2026 Senedd elections as a dry run for a future general election. Internally, they are referring to Wales as ‘ground zero’.
Welsh workers betrayed
Farage’s decision to deliver his speech in Port Talbot is not surprising. Less than a year has passed since the steelworks blast furnaces were shut down after Tata Steel decided it was more profitable to move production abroad.
During this whole debacle, Welsh Labour and the trade union leaders shamefully failed to lift a finger to defend the almost 3,000 jobs that were subsequently axed. As a consequence, Port Talbot is doomed to become another post-industrial ghost town.
Farage’s speech is a direct appeal to those feeling betrayed by Welsh Labour, who have overseen more than 40 years of managed decline in Wales – where living standards have dropped to some of the lowest in Europe, and where economic inactivity is the highest in the UK at 28.1 percent.
It is no surprise Reform has its strongest base in the former industrial towns in the South Wales Valleys, where this decline is most pronounced.
Filling a vacuum
With the left failing to address workers’ issues, Farage is demagogically attempting to fill this vacuum.
Of course, the vile anti-immigration rhetoric is still there: calling for ending funding to the Welsh Refugee Council and for a stop of building housing for asylum seekers, and so on.
But it is notable that Reform’s message in Wales is almost exclusively focused on addressing the material hardships faced by ordinary working-class people: a lack of jobs, a lack of housing, and a lack of training and education opportunities.
Welsh Labour in a corner
Wales’ First Minister and leader of Welsh Labour, Eluned Morgan, will certainly be feeling the heat from the rise of Reform in Wales.
Incredibly, Reform is polling neck and neck with Plaid Cymru – both ahead of Welsh Labour.
With a sense of dread amidst the gathering storm, from 27 to 29 June, the Welsh Labour conference was held in Llandudno.
Set against a backdrop of a large pro-Palestine demonstration outside the venue, guest speaker Keir Starmer didn’t even stay long enough to finish his 40-minute allocated slot, before making a swift exit.
But this was just enough time to reaffirm the Labour government’s plans to make “difficult choices”.
Despite her tokenistic statements opposing Starmer’s austerity in recent weeks, when the First Minister took to the stage, her speech offered little more than scaremongering over how Reform poses a threat to “the Welsh way of life”.
With Welsh Labour unwilling to put up any real fight against their boss in Downing Street, they have hitched themselves to a sinking ship.
Liberal aloofness
But especially comical – and hollow – has been the response of liberal commentators and mainstream media to Farage’s plans for Wales.
They dismiss Reform’s plans for reindustrialisation as a pipedream, and resort to chastising workers for their gullibility.
They cite Welsh workers’ alleged “low level of political literacy” as the source of Reform’s popularity – what patronising nonsense!
They declare that the blast furnaces cannot be reopened – how the molten steel has solidified within them – and how the cost of rebuilding them is unattainable.
They cry crocodile tears and lament how the coal mines were a hazard to workers’ health and destroyed the environment.
But what solutions do they present instead?
Simply put – that Welsh workers need to lower their expectations over what is possible. “Welsh voters need to be realistic!” they might as well proclaim, “Reform’s promises of jobs, better living conditions, and a hopeful future are impossible!”
This just translates into a defence of the establishment and the status quo – which have never been more resented.
All this rings extremely hollow when the status quo for Welsh workers for the past 40 years has been that of cuts, layoffs and closures.
Instead of offering any alternative to satisfy and address workers’ actual aspirations and needs, this leaves the left field wide open to Farge and his ilk.
Failure of the left
This also completely exposes the weakness of the official ‘left’ – who solely attack Farage as a racist, without understanding that it is precisely his anti-establishment rhetoric that is gaining Reform its popularity.
They fail to see that the current establishment is just as racist as Reform, and is the one actually carrying out attacks on migrants, minorities, and the whole working class.
In Wales, it is Welsh Labour that has overseen the complete hollowing out of working-class communities and the destruction of industry.
It is on Welsh Labour’s watch that we have seen racist thugs swarm Welsh hotels housing asylum seekers.
It is Welsh Labour who do nothing to stand in the way of the onslaught of austerity measures from Westminster.
In lockstep with the liberals, the left’s approach of ‘keep Reform out’ does nothing more than translate into a defence of the establishment.
The only real alternative
As Communists, we have no illusions in Farage’s opportunism. No matter which party holds the reins in the Senedd, under capitalism it is impossible to reopen productive, well-paying, safe and sustainable industries in Wales.
At a time where British capitalism is weak and cannot compete on the world stage, capitalists would rather move their industries to parts of the world where production is cheaper and where greater profits can be made.
Farage’s appeals are nothing more than attempts to tap into the masses’ deep-seated hatred of the entire establishment.
However, we place no trust whatsoever in any ‘realistic’ alternative presented by the liberals or reformists, or any defence of the rotten status quo.
If workers were presented with a genuine radical alternative – this would immediately pull out the rug from Farage’s feet.
In fact, the only way to cut across Reform’s anti-establishment rhetoric and simultaneously expose the hypocritical scaremongering of the liberals, is to build a political force that addresses the hardships faced by Welsh workers, on a clear, revolutionary class basis
The only way we can genuinely take control over our future – rebuild broken communities, and create industries and jobs we can be proud of – is by overthrowing capitalism and planning the economy.
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