‘It’s almost just sort of unbelievable, because he is taking people for fools Nigel Farage’
Ed Miliband has slammed Nigel Farage for “telling fairy stories” when he announced that his party wants to reopen coal mines in Wales.
In a bid to win votes ahead of the Senedd elections next May, yesterday Farage said his party wants to reopen coal mines in Wales and bring back the blast furnaces at Port Talbot.
The Energy Secretary dismissed Farage’s bold claim as posturing, stating that as the MP for the coalmining area of Doncaster North for 20 years, his constituents are not asking him to reopen the mines.
Speaking to Nick Ferrari on LBC, Miliband said: “I don’t think Nigel Farage understands our coalfield communities, because the people in our coalfield communities are not saying to me, let’s reopen the coal mines.
“They’re saying ‘let’s bring the good jobs of the future, like nuclear, like in renewables, like in the hydrogen economy.’”
He added: “It’s almost just sort of unbelievable, because he is taking people for fools Nigel Farage, as if he just makes up a thing that oh let’s reopen the coal mines. I mean, come off it!”.
Ferrari responded by mentioning that Farage also spoke about reopening the furnaces at Port Talbot and asked whether that would not be a welcome development if it happened.
Miliband said: “Of course, that would have been a good thing. But the truth is that those decisions were made before we came to office.”
Miliband emphasised that the business and trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds “did absolutely everything he could to try and stabilise things at Port Talbot”.
However, he continued: “But again, there’s no plan, it’s just a piece of posing, let’s be honest, from Nigel Farage.”
Port Talbot closed in September last year. Its operator Tata said it had been losing £1m a day.
A steel industry source told the BBC that the two furnaces that closed last year cannot be reused, with the structures containing hundreds of tonnes of solidified molten iron, meaning new ones would have to be built.
Building a brand new steelworks would cost around £3 billion.
After his press conference yesterday, Farage later acknowledged it would be “impossible” for the old structures to be reopened.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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