Nigel Farage launches Reform manifesto at social club in Merthyr Tydfil

Nigel Farage's party Reform UK has today brought the UK's media to one of the most deprived areas of Wales to launch its manifesto for the General Election on July 5. Mr Farage said he chose the sports and social club in the Gurnos, Merthyr Tydfil, as Wales is an example of "what happens to a country when Labour is in charge".

One critic called him a parasite exploiting the problems of post-industrial communities like those of south Wales. Professor Brad Evans of Bath University, who was raised in the Rhondda, said that his divisive rhetoric simply fuels anger in communities failed by the classes to which he belongs.

Mr Farage spent much of this speech in the Gurnos attacking the Welsh Government. He said that the lessons of Labour leadership in Wales are higher council taxes, higher spending per capita and worse public services. “The figures in Wales are truly astonishing,” he says pointing to NHS waiting lists and the “lefty” direction of education standards.

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Reform's priorities for the UK include freezing "non-essential" immigration, cutting corporation tax and slashing "Government waste". Mr Farage, who is calling the manifesto a "contract", attacked Labour's record in Wales and the Tories' "feeble" opposition. "Schools are worse than in England, NHS waiting lists are longer than in England, Covid restrictions were even tighter than in England and now Welsh motorists are being soaked by literally hundreds of speed cameras to enforce the deeply unpopular new 20mph blanket speed limit in towns and villages," he said.

"Since devolution, the Welsh have been