‘There’s no jobs’: struggle and regret in a Welsh town that backed Brexit

Politics The Guardian By Bethan McKernan Wales correspondent 21 Jun 2026 05:00 1 min read

Ten years ago Ebbw Vale had the highest proportion of leave voters in Wales despite huge EU funding, which has not been fully replaced Where Ebbw Vale’s steelworks once stood is now a cluster of gleaming modern buildings including a hospital, a leisure centre and a college. Over the past decade, these public facilities have been joined by a public-private cybersecurity research centre and two tech firms. A new railway station opened at the site in 2015. Yet, during the Guardian’s visit to the We

Ten years ago Ebbw Vale had the highest proportion of leave voters in Wales despite huge EU funding, which has not been fully replaced

Where Ebbw Vale’s steelworks once stood is now a cluster of gleaming modern buildings including a hospital, a leisure centre and a college. Over the past decade, these public facilities have been joined by a public-private cybersecurity research centre and two tech firms. A new railway station opened at the site in 2015.

Yet, during the Guardian’s visit to the Welsh valleys town last week, the area was quiet. Nearly as many sheep as people appeared to be using the new facilities: a ewe and three lambs, escaped from somewhere, busied themselves in a strip of rewilded land next to the tech buildings.

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