Nigel Farage warned Britain faces collapse under its ‘extraordinary’ debt mountain today as he put Reform’s election vows of huge tax cuts on the back burner.
In a crucial speech in the City of London, Mr Farage made a bold bid to burnish his credentials as a serious contender to run the country.
He underlined that getting the deficit down and slashing red tape for business will be the overriding priority for a Reform government, saying only then can the burden on struggling Brits be reduced.
Delivering a dire assessment of the UK’s current condition, Mr Farage urged a push to lure back wealthy people and foster aspiration.
He also appeared to backtrack on the commitment to scrap the two-child benefit cap – suggesting only working couples would get such handouts.
Insisting Reform is being ‘sensible’ and ‘not over-promising’, Mr Farage said he was determined to ‘cut spending’ and ‘encourage growth’.
He said welfare changes such as stripping people with low-level anxiety of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) would save £9billion a year. The ‘lunacy’ of Net Zero spending would also be reduced.
‘We want to cut taxes, of course we do but we understand that substantial tax cuts… are not realistic at this time,’ Mr Farage said.
‘The state of the finances, the state of the economy is far far worse than it was in the run up to the 2024 general election. But be in no doubt we are pro-business…’
Mr Farage warned that debt was rising faster in the UK than ‘any comparable country’, with debt interest costs alone running at £100billion a year.
He said the ‘markets are getting nervy’ – predicting investors will force even ‘hard-Left socialist’ Labour into a ‘genuine austerity Budget’ in 2027 and trigger a snap election.
The intervention comes with polls showing Mr Farage on track to win the keys to Downing Street.
But Reform have been facing increasing questions about what their approach would be if they do end up in power.
In a crucial speech in the City of London, Nigel Farage is bidding to burnish his credentials as a serious option to run the country
The speech has been billed as Mr Farage’s first big move on economic policy, after he secured a groundswell of support by campaigning on issues such as immigration and ‘wokery’
Insiders acknowledge that the party will have to demonstrate they can be trusted with detailed policies as the election draws closer.
The speech has been billed as Mr Farage’s first big move on economic policy, after he secured a groundswell of support by campaigning on issues such as immigration and ‘wokery’.
Reform’s manifesto last year promised £90billion of tax cuts – around a third of the NHS budget.
They including raising the personal allowance to £20,000, introducing a £100,000 tax-free allowance for companies and exempting some high street firms from business rates.
At the time, the Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank said the plans, along with £50 billion of spending commitments and £150 billion of cuts, were ‘problematic’.
In his speech today, Mr Farage accused Labour and the Tories of ‘wrecking the public finances’.
He said Reform would be ‘the most pro-business’ government in British history, with sweeping deregulation to make the most of Brexit freedoms.
Mr Farage said: ‘The harsh truth is that regulations and regulators, in many areas, are worse than they were back in 2016.’
Promising to ‘free businesses to get on and make more money’, he said: ‘Reform UK will do things very differently.
‘We will be the most pro-business, pro-entrepreneurship government this country has seen in modern times.
‘This will mean more well-paid jobs for workers.’
The insurgent leader said the UK needed to rediscover the ability to take ‘risks’, encourage the wealthy rather than force them to leave, and stop the ‘ideological’ drive for ‘de-industrialisation’.
Speaking at Banking Hall, Mr Farage said: ‘We want to cut taxes, of course we do, but we understand substantial tax cuts given the dire state of debt and our finances are not realistic at this current moment in time.
‘There are some relatively modest things we would do: We would immediately remove IHT from family farms and from family-run businesses, and we will raise the thresholds at which people start to pay tax to begin the process of getting people out of the 16-hour a week working debt trap that so many people find themselves in.’
The Reform UK leader added: ‘One of my own great frustrations is that Brexit has been squandered. The opportunity to sensibly deregulate, the opportunity to become competitive globally, all of that has been squandered.
‘And the worst thing is that regulations and the way regulators behave with British business is now worse than it was at the time of the Brexit referendum vote.’
He pointed out that China had been the ‘beneficiary’ of the disastrous decisions taken by Labour and the Tories.
Mr Farage declined to commit to keeping the triple lock on the state pension.
‘If I’m right, and that election comes in 2027, then the economy will be in an even worse state than any of us in this room could even predict. So how can anybody project on pensions or thresholds or any of those things between now and then?’ he said.
And he suggested that the minimum wage might be too high for younger people, discouraging firms from employing them.
Mr Farage refused to say who would be Chancellor or Home Secretary if Reform does win an election, saying the party is a ‘work in progress’.
‘Right now we are not ready… you can see that we are developing thinking, we are developing messaging in a very very wide range of areas.’
Labour said Mr Farage’s new proposals would ‘take us back to austerity’.
A party spokesman said: ‘Nigel Farage has promised a return to damaging austerity, taking an axe to public services, with no cuts off the table. He complained the minimum wage is too high for young workers, while doubling down on his golden giveaway to foreign billionaires.
‘Reform would slash the NHS, schools, and pensions – and cancel Labour’s investment in local roads, rail, and clean energy, putting millions of jobs at risk and wreaking havoc on family finances.
‘Only this Labour government is fixing the long-term damage to our economy to renew Britain. We had the fastest growing economy in the G7 in the first half of this year, international investors are putting billions into the UK, and interest rates are falling – meaning more money going into the pockets of working people.’
