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

“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.

Debbie’s husband was one of 1,700 people who worked for the biggest employer in the town, located between Cardiff and Swansea, when the factory’s closure was announced in 2019. After about 30 years of service, he took early retirement in his late 50s when he received his redundancy payment.

At the time, many other Ford workers pinned their hopes on taking their…