Welsh Secretary caught in backlash over ‘insulting’ Port Talbot video
Emily Price
Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens has been accused of insulting TATA steelworkers after promoting mental health support for those affected by job losses at the plant the day after an emergency law was passed to protect steel jobs in Scunthorpe.
On Sunday (April 13), Ms Stevens appeared in a video posted online by the UK Government’s Wales Office which featured sweeping shots of the UK’s largest steelworks in Port Talbot.
Indian-owned TATA shut down its last blast furnace at the site in September 2024 to transition to greener steelmaking involving an electric arc furnace.
The change will see thousands of steelworkers at the plant being made redundant.
‘Difficult’
In the video clip, the Welsh Secretary said she knew it had been “an incredibly difficult time for the steelworkers, their families and the wider community in Port Talbot.”
She said: “I said we would back them in whatever ways were needed. I’m pleased to announce this new funding to protect and support mental health and well-being.
“This investment of over £3m will mean more counsellors available to support steelworkers. Help for schools for children of affected families and funding for local groups.
“Good mental health is crucial to getting into and staying in work, providing a sense of purpose and supporting growth in the local economy – which benefits the whole community.”
The UK Government is committing more than £3 million to boost mental health provision in the #PortTalbot area.
Watch Welsh Secretary @JoStevensLabour on how this funding will help steelworkers affected by the steel transition stay well, find and keep good employment. pic.twitter.com/h75nqJ42O3
— Wales Office (@WalesOffice) April 13, 2025
The Wales Office video has been viewed over 270,000 times with commentators branding it “tone deaf” and raising questions about why the UK Government didn’t fight for public ownership of the Port Talbot steelworks.
Although the clip was posted to X at the weekend, a spokesperson for Ms Stevens said the mental health funding had been confirmed at the last TATA transition board meeting several weeks ago.
In a post to X, formerly Twitter, Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said Ms Steven’s “had no idea”.
He said: “Can’t quite get my head around how insulting this is from the Labour UK Government.
“‘We’ve shafted you but we’ll put some money into helping you deal with the fact that we’ve shafted you.’
“The Labour Welsh Secretary knows ‘how difficult’ this is for Port Talbot? She has no idea.”
Control
The video came after MPs rushed emergency legislation through the UK Parliament on Saturday (12 April) to take control of the beleaguered British Steel plant in Scunthorpe.
It will allow ministers to stop its Chinese owners Jingye from closing its two blast furnaces.
The legislation stops short of full nationalisation of British Steel, and ministers say they remain hopeful that they can secure private investment to save the plant.
But there is currently no private company willing to invest in the firm and UK ministers have acknowledged that public ownership remained the “likely option”.
Labour has argued that the situation in Port Talbot was different to the one in Scunthorpe – with TATA’s choice to close its blast furnaces made in January 2024 under the previous Conservative government.
Ms Stevens says her party “stepped up” by securing a “better deal” with TATA that protected “the immediate future of steel making”.
‘Sour‘
Plaid Cymru says the last blast furnace in Port Talbot didn’t shut down until several months after Labour won the General Election and that there was still time to bring it under public ownership.
Plaid’s leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth said: “The Secretary of State’s re-announcement of funding for mental health support is an insult to the community.
“Yes, that support is vital, but the timing – and the impression that this somehow does right for the injustice, leaves a very sour taste.
“This is a community angry at having been betrayed, but now we in Plaid Cymru will do all we can to fight for the investment needed here, so the UK Labour Government delivers on its so-called enhanced deal and ensures adequate investment for Port Talbot from the government’s £2.5bn steel fund, and puts together a strategy for the future.”
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Labour in Wales have gone to far their name is DIRT come next years election they will have their comeupance and Rightly so Tories will not gain but Reform and Plaid hoping Plaid gains the most as i find Reform EVIL
You’ve echoed the views of many!
Actually, most of the people (I was in the party and was shafted out) in Reform are decent people who do not know what is happening within the party…and still do not see that Farage is the equivalent of a ‘snake oil salesman’.
I have come across quite a number of members who’s views are disgusting…with even a top party official in Wales making a remark about going out and sinking boats crossing the channel. I told her that it would amount to the murder of women and children!!!
I know of many members still in contact with Britain First!
Farage and ReformUK equivalent to Oswald Mosley and the blackshirts.
It’s not enough to have great mental health and training opportunities if there are no jobs. At least Thatcher, eventually, moved a few government departments over from London. If nothing else they should be reclaiming the waterfront and opening an iconic museum and gallery which worked for Bilbao. The problem is London Labour are surrounded by Whitehall mandarins whispering in their ear that these folk in the colonies are beyond saving and should be abandoned to their fate (*sad face and shrug*).
Then the colonies fought and gained independence and started their journey to recovery.
I’m sure all those ‘green jobs will be along any time soon!
They could well be ‘along’, in time; but from the voters’ perspective how long they’ll take to actually emerge, to the extent that their impact and reality are perceived by the electorate, is probably another matter.
Cleaning muck off scrap metal to make it fit for those superduper electric furnaces. Extra labour costs will render that steel even more expensive so UK will keep on importing cheap virgin steel from countries who have retained capacity.
What a surprise. Her party only wanted the people of Port Talbot’s votes. The area and the people are just not important enough to Labour to merit the support that areas in England will get. No matter which party is in power, Wales has and will continually be let down by Westminster. When will people learn?
100% agree with your comment Labour are very clever in misleading people but with all the publicity they clearly stated on the BBC they would turn Port Talbot and keep the furnaces burning. Your right sadly people in Wales to me don’t want to learn and keep hoping one day Labour might come good
Boy Kinnock very quiet now. This was his chance to identify with his constituency rather than the London set.
He has never done that, nor would he. He knows which side his bread is buttered. I have zero respect for the man.
They only showed an interest in Port Talbot during the election campaign. They certainly weren’t going there to consult with the workers before that. It was a ploy. A gimmick. And far from being clever about it, I think Labour are painfully transparent. We have around one hundred years’ worth of experience with the party to know that they have only ever been interested in what they can take from Wales. And yet, given the same choice again, I believe those who turned out in Wales to vote for them would do so again in equally alarmingly high numbers.
Remaining in the UK and voting for their parties will NEVER be the solution for Wales. We can only build our own future with relationship with other European countries as equals. The UK has never been our equals, but has always taken our taxation and been the rulers that short change us and never serve us. The 2026 Senedd elections are possibly our last chance to claim our nation by voting for our nation’s independence from the UK. PLAID CYMRU will serve our nation and take us to independence as quick as possible. Any failure in 2026 will be a… Read more »
Fair play to Labour, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a dedicated commitment to making sure that people know you absolutely despise them and have zero respect for them
As mentioned elsewhere it’s amazing that they’re doing their best never to get a seat in the senedd again, but unfortunately they will be leaving things open for the disgusting wrong uns in reform.
Could have been worse , you could have been asked to pay for the treatment.
Please remember the Pensioners and redundant
Steel workers in local and Senedd elections coming up.
Ms Stevens is just another out of Manchester Uni activist with no real life experience and nose in the trough , bending whichever way the hierarchy wind blows so as to maintain status .