Reform’s Welsh leader backtracks on Port Talbot blast furnace pledge admitting reopening them ‘clearly isn’t possible’

Emily Price 

Reform UK has been accused of saying anything to win votes after the party’s leader in Wales admitted Port Talbot’s decommissioned blast furnaces cannot be reopened despite the pledge made by Nigel Farage last year.

Dan Thomas was grilled on Wednesday (April 8) by ITV’s Rob Osborne as part of a new Welsh leaders television series ahead of the May 7 Senedd election.

During the interview, Thomas was asked why a previous promise by leader Nigel Farage to bring back blast furnace steelmaking in Port Talbot did not appear in the party’s Welsh manifesto.

Farage said in June that the furnaces shut down to make way for greener steelmaking could be restarted using coal mined in Wales to fuel them.

Experts said this would be “impossible” because the structures contain over 300 tonnes of solidified molten iron.

When pressed on the matter, Thomas admitted that Farage’s suggestion was “clearly not possible.”

He was also quizzed on a number of other issues including how his party will fund its manifesto pledges, whether he supports a ban on politicians lying and how, as a relatively unknown figure in Wales, he became Reform’s leader.

Thomas was unveiled as Farage’s top man in Wales in February amid speculation that the position would be awarded to a more senior and recognised figure – such as a serving Senedd Member.

Thomas told ITV he didn’t approach the party to ask to be its Welsh leader – but was invited to join a shortlist of hundreds of Reform’s Senedd election hopefuls.

The former building society manager was later invited for a “business like” chat with Farage and other senior party officials before being asked to take up the role of Welsh leader.

During his interview with ITV, Thomas labelled himself a “disrupter” and claimed he hadn’t been a politician before.

He then quickly backtracked admitting he was previously the leader of a council in London, adding that he was not a “career politician” and hadn’t “earned a living” as a politician before.

Thomas was previously a Conservative Party councillor in the London Borough of Barnet for 19 years, serving as the leader of the council from 2019 to 2022.

As of 2026, Barnet Council’s leader is paid a special responsibility allowance of approximately £46,000 – higher than Wales’ median salary, which is cited as £34,303.

Thomas defected to Reform UK in June 2025 and announced his resignation from Barnet Council on December 31, 2025. He says he now lives in Wales and is Reform’s lead candidate standing in the Casnewydd Islwyn Senedd consistency.

Net Zero

Pressed on his previous support for Net Zero targets and diversity policies while he was a Conservative, Thomas said his track record as a council leader “speaks for itself”.

During his time as a councillor he boasted of his pride for Barnet exceeding national Net Zero targets and celebrated his borough’s “proud history of providing sanctuary to those fleeing persecution.”

Under Thomas’ leadership, Barnet was the first council in the UK to settle Afghan refugees following the Taliban takeover in 2021.

Thomas said: “And I’m proud of that – it was a very small number of Afghan asylum seekers and they were interpreters that helped British troops.

“Since then the flood gates have opened and too many have come over.”

The party that wins power at the May 7 Senedd election will not have any authority over immigration policy as this remains a reserved matter controlled by the UK Government in Westminster.

Tax cuts

Asked how Reform would fund its tax cuts proposals, Thomas said the party would reduce Wales’ civil service by 10 per cent and freeze pay for civil servants as well as scrapping green subsidies and subsidies for Cardiff Airport.

The institute for fiscal studies has said that the tax cuts proposed by Reform UK in its Welsh manifesto would cost around £340m, rising to £400m.

On health and social care – which is by far the largest expenditure in the Welsh Government’s budget – Thomas promised a new dental school in Bangor, rapid diagnostic centres, expanded surgical hubs and upgraded hospital wards and theatres.

The Welsh leader claimed all these promises would cost £70 million a year.

ITV’s Osborne pointed out that the maintenance backlog for the Welsh NHS estate comes in at over £1 billion.

Thomas said Reform would audit the entire NHS estate and “prioritise those in most need” adding that land around hospitals could be used for housing.

Asked whether Reform was giving extra money to Wales’ NHS – or just allocating it in different pots, Thomas said: “I think we have to prioritise it.”

On education in Wales, Reform’s Welsh leader suggested that the party could pursue further school mergers, following similar controversial consolidations already seen in the south Wales Valleys.

He said: “If you’ve got a school, and you’ve got three classrooms and in a two years time there’s only enough children to fill one classroom, we have to look at that.”

Lying

Asked whether Thomas would keep or scrap a ban on politicians lying, the Welsh leader chuckled before saying he would scrap it.

Later asked whether he thought he could withstand that scrutiny that comes with being a party leader, he said: “It’s the price that politicians pay to get the job done.”

A Reform UK source told Nation.Cymru that although Thomas had been announced as the party’s Welsh leader “to big fanfare” he had since “taken the party backwards”.

They said: “Everyone is saying putting a London Tory up as Welsh leader was one Tory too many.

“You can see in his eyes when he’s interviewed he doesn’t really know what he is doing.

“He’s been living the high life in north London for two decades – what in hell does he know about today’s Blackwood?”

Bribes

A Welsh Conservative source told Nation.Cymru that Thomas’ interview confirmed that Reform was only telling people what they wanted to hear in order to win votes.

The Tory source said: “Reform’s latest leader in Wales is only in post because the last one is currently sat in jail for accepting bribes from the Russians.

“And it means that Reform’s talent deficiency in Wales really shows.

“In just the past few months, Reform’s leader has u-turned on 20mph speed limits, steel in Port Talbot, climate change and immigration policy.

“They will literally say anything to gain votes, telling everyone what they want to hear – even if it contradicts what they’ve previously said.

“The only party with a consistent, costed, credible plan to get Wales working after 27 failed years of a Labour and Plaid duopoly are the Welsh Conservatives.”

A Plaid Cymru spokesperson said: “Serious times require a serious government, and Reform UK have proven time and time again that they’re as unserious as they come.

“Whether it’s promising to re-open the mines or turn on the blast furnaces – which they now acknowledge isn’t possible – they have no idea what is needed to help our communities.”