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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Joanna Partridge in Bridgend

‘Green shoots’ or coalmining past? Welsh town reacts to Labour and Reform’s visions for future

Clockwise: a mechanic, former National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) leader Arthur Scargill, blast furnaces of the Tata Steel plant, Ford logo, car assembly line, map of Bridgend, Farage, Port Talbot steelworks, Jaguar, Bridgend town centre
The miners’ strike under Arthur Scargill and the closure of the Ford plant have cast a shadow that Reform’s Nigel Farage is hoping to exploit. Bridgend town centre. Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images/Reuters/PA

“It’s sad. I think it killed the town,” says Debbie, sitting in a cafe in Bridgend and recalling the closure of Ford’s south Wales engine plant almost five years ago. “There were lots of men and women working there at the end.”

During its 40 years of operations, workers at Bridgend Ford produced 22m engines for Ford, Volvo and Jaguar cars, before it closed quietly in September 2020 during ongoing Covid restrictions.

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