The Welsh Conservatives said they were committed to ensuring steelmaking took place at Port Talbot and was secure for the future by supporting the transition to electric arc furnaces.
They said the UK government was investing £500m into the new furnaces, as well as creating a transition fund worth £100m to support workers retrain.
“This is a huge contrast to the Labour government in Wales who haven’t spent a single penny helping the transition,” said a spokesperson
They added millions were also being invested into the wider south-west Wales economy with the Celtic Freeport, which was estimated to create thousands of high skilled, well-paid jobs.
Labour’s shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the party would pledge more than the £500m offered by the Conservatives to keep steel making in south Wales.
“Our request is that there are no irreversible decisions made before 4 July and that the company negotiates with us, with our Welsh government colleagues, with the trade unions, because there is a better deal that can be done,” he said.
Pressed on Tata Steel’s comments that the general election result will not alter its plans, Mr Reynolds added: “They’ve been dealing with a Conservative government, that I don’t think has understood or cared for the steel industry.
“The overall business operating environment for steel in the UK will improve under a Labour government because, not just because of that £3 billion pounds green steel transition fund that we want to put in place”
Plaid Cymru‘s economy and energy spokesman Luke Fletcher MS said Wales’ economy was being held back by Westminster parties, while Labour was not offering the hopeful vision that Wales desperately needed.
“From thousands of good paying and highly skilled jobs at risk in south Wales, to Westminster’s failure to give Wales the powers we need to be in charge of our own economic destiny – we know this isn’t as good as it gets,” he said.
He said the party’s green new deal set out an economic vision which offered “rewarding, meaningful and fair work” in the emerging green and net-zero sector.
The Welsh Liberal Democrats said Welsh workers could not be “cast aside and treated as collateral damage”.
“If the government doesn’t step in, the local community and wider economy of the region will be devastated,” said a spokesperson.
The party is calling for a long-term vision for the steel industry both in Wales and across the UK and said the Conservatives had “utterly failed to deliver one”.
The spokesperson added: “The Welsh Liberal Democrats have been pushing for a modernisation plan that would save jobs and transition to green steel for years. France, Germany and others are doing this, yet the Conservatives have been asleep at the wheel.”
The Reform Party said there was every possibility that the steelworks would be “the next casualty of the net-zero vanity project pushed by both the Labour and Conservative governments.”
A spokesperson added: “Three blast furnaces have just been completed in India which makes a mockery of the situation Port Talbot is now in.
“Importantly, in such precarious times we need our steel for our defence industry . We will then be dependent on other countries for the supply. It will certainly be inferior in quality compared with Port Talbot.”
The party said both main parties were “obsessed” with net zero, adding that clean air could not be achieved through knee jerk reactions.
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