The leader of Reform was forced to defend his ‘unashamedly radical’ manifesto yesterday as critics branded it ‘fantasy economics’.
Nigel Farage launched the party’s election blueprint in South Wales, unveiling a staggering £141billion in tax cuts and additional spending.
This included around £88billion in personal and business tax cuts – nearly double the amount in Liz Truss’s doomed mini-budget, which sparked economic turmoil in 2022.
Mr Farage insisted it was ‘wrong’ to compare Reform’s plans with Ms Truss’s, setting out £150billion worth of measures to raise revenue.
But critics said the party was over-estimating how much it would save and took aim at other pledges such as eliminating NHS waiting lists within two years, saying this has not been achieved in the NHS’s history.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, ex-deputy chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said: ‘These policies are completely barking. It’s just absolute nonsense. Fantasy economics. They’re taking the public for absolute fools.’
Carl Emmerson, deputy director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said: ‘Spending reductions would save less than stated, and the tax cuts would cost more than stated, by a margin of tens of billions of pounds per year.’
Defending his plans in Merthyr Tydfil, Mr Farage said: ‘It’s radical. It’s fresh thinking. It’s outside the box. We’re unashamedly radical. We want change.’
Here are Reform’s key plans analysed:
Tax and spending
Reform aims to raise the minimum income tax threshold from £12,571 to £20,000, lifting seven million people out of the levy.
It also wants to increase the higher rate threshold from £50,000 to £70,000, slash fuel duty by around a third – 20p a litre – and scrap VAT on energy bills.
Stamp duty would be axed on properties valued at under £750,000 – the current threshold is £250,000 – and inheritance tax will be abolished for estates worth under £2million. The threshold is £325,000 currently.
The party would fund the pledges by stopping the Bank of England paying interest on Quantitative Easing reserves, which it says could raise £35billlion a year.
Reform adds it will find £50billion in public spending efficiencies without hitting frontline services.
Analysis
The claim that it could save £50billion without affecting vital services is questionable.
David Cameron’s ‘austerity’ government claimed to have made £33.5billion of efficiency savings across four years and £14.3billion in the best single year. Some frontline services were affected.
Experts also say the Quantitative Easing reserves proposals would save less than £20billion.
Critics added that the list of tax cuts mostly benefit the wealthy.
Immigration
Reform pledged to ‘freeze non-essential immigration’ and stop Channel crossings by leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
It said ‘zero illegal immigrants will be resettled in the UK’ and small boat migrants would be sent back to France.
Asylum-seekers from safe countries would be ’processed rapidly, offshore if necessary’ and would be barred from claiming refuge.
On legal arrivals, the party had previously pledged ‘net-zero migration’, so for every migrant who arrives, one would leave. But this has now been left out.
The party confirmed it will bring in a migrant tax, charging employers an increased National Insurance rate of 20 per cent for every foreign worker they bring in.
Analysis
Pulling out of the ECHR is an attempt to outflank the Tories on the Right. However, it is unclear if this would solve the problem of being able to deport people more quickly as Britain is signed up to other treaties protecting rights.
There are also questions about whether small boat migrants could be sent back to France, which Reform claims international treaties allow.
But the treaties are not specified and it raises questions about why no-one has done it before.
Reform’s manifesto also did not specify what it means by ‘non-essential immigration’.
NHS and social care
Reform pledged to get rid of NHS waiting lists in two years. Patients would receive a voucher for fully-funded private treatment if they cannot see their GP within three days.
There would be 20 per cent tax relief on private healthcare and insurance.
All frontline NHS and social care staff on less than £70,000 a year would pay zero basic rate tax for three years.
A Covid-19 ‘vaccine harms’ public inquiry would start and Britain would quit the World Health Organisation unless it reforms.
Analysis
This also aims to attract Tory voters as waiting lists have gone up to around 7.5million.
But the costs are huge, particularly on private healthcare and the fact that many NHS staff would pay zero income tax for several years.
Reform did not make clear why NHS staff on £70,000 should pay less tax than soldiers, teachers, firefighters or police officers.
Of the spending plans, the most is £17billion a year for the NHS. But this would not be enough to meet Reform’s plan to eliminate waiting lists within two years.
Defence
Reform would spend 2.5 per cent of GDP within three years. The party also says it would have a department for veterans and a new law would protect those on active duty from legal action.
It would also raise basic pay and recruit 30,000 more soldiers.
Analysis
Another bid to outflank the Tories, but it is a huge spending pledge unlikely to be fully funded under current revenue measures.
Other pledges
A ‘two-strike’ rule stopping benefits if jobseekers reject two job offers, scrap all net-zero targets, boost police numbers by 40,000 plus St George’s and St David’s Day to become public holidays.