MERTHYR TYDFIL, WALES — Reform UK leader Nigel Farage rallied a crowd of about 700 people in a shopping mall parking lot in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, on Tuesday night, urging supporters to defeat Labour in local elections being held across Britain on Thursday. The event was his tenth visit to the South Wales town in 12 months.

"Let's start a political revolution here in Merthyr!" Farage told the crowd. "Let's make history!" he added, also calling on attendees to "Vote Reform!"

Farage vowed to slash hospital waiting times and pressed his platform of anti-immigration measures, opposition to green policies, and tax cuts, alongside pledges to reindustrialize Britain and revive its high streets. Thursday's vote covers thousands of local municipal races in England as well as elections for the devolved parliaments in Wales and Scotland.

The contests will serve as a midterm-style barometer for Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Reform UK is projected to make gains across the ballots. Ahead of the Senedd vote, a projection by the think tank More in Common put Plaid Cymru at 30 percent, Reform UK at 27 percent, and Labour at 16 percent.

The South Wales Valleys remain one of the most economically deprived areas in Britain. In some parts of the region, about 70 percent of working-age adults are employed and about 25 percent are economically inactive. In Wales there was a long-running joke that the Labour Party could pin a red rosette on a donkey and still win. The Conservative Party has remained unpopular in many Welsh communities following Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's coal mine closures in the 1980s.