Reform UK asks steel bosses to draft ‘alternative strategy’ for industry

Reform UK has asked steel bosses to draw up an “alternative steel strategy” to rival recent government plans, stoking industry fears over a charm offensive by Nigel Farage’s party as it eyes gains in former Labour heartlands.

Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, met a group of bosses shortly before Labour announced new steel tariffs in March and commissioned them to draft a competing plan that will include scrapping net zero policies.

The party is trying to harness growing anger at the government for high business energy bills, exacerbated by the Iran war, which are damaging steel companies and the wider manufacturing sector. Reform’s overtures have received a mixed reception across the industry.

One of the plan’s authors, the boss of a steel fabricating company, said Tice had made them feel Reform “cares about the industry” more than Labour. They added: “Labour is supposed to be there for the workers, not there to destroy it.”

However, another industry source said although Tice “understands that you need a steel industry” for issues such as national security, “whether they have any good policy ideas of what to actually do, I doubt that”.

They also said Reform’s anti-net zero position “does nothing for us”, adding: “Anything that makes us more dependent on gas is a bad thing.”

While Reform’s steel strategy has not yet been written, the push to woo the industry comes just weeks before the local elections on 7 May, in which the party is hoping to make gains in areas that have experienced decades of manufacturing job losses.

Wales is a particular focus. The party is polling almost level with Plaid Cymru in the race to become the largest party in the Senedd, according to YouGov, while Labour and the Conservatives are facing historic losses.

Reform’s Welsh leader, Dan Thomas, is due to visit the Tata Steel site at Port Talbot on Friday, the Guardian understands. The company announced about 2,500 job cuts in 2024 when it decided to switch from coal-fired blast furnaces to electric ones.

Farage also visited the south Wales plant last year and said he wanted to reintroduce blast furnaces to help the country “reindustrialise and grow”. However, the policy is not in Reform’s Welsh election manifesto and Farage appeared to row back on it earlier this month, admitting it “would be very expensive”.