Nigel Farage accused of ‘taking the general public for full fools’
Reform UK was yesterday accused of ‘taking the public for complete fools’ over the scale of its ‘unaffordable’ tax-cutting pledges.
Party leader Nigel Farage and Richard Tice, its chairman, said Reform’s manifesto would include a promise to increase the amount at which workers begin paying the basic rate of income tax to £20,000.
They said the pledge would lift 7million workers out of paying any income tax and hand most employees back £1,500.
At present, workers start paying the 20 per cent basic rate on earnings above £12,571.
Mr Tice and Mr Farage also pledged that the threshold for paying the higher rate of 40 per cent would be raised from £50,271 to £70,000.
Party leader Nigel Farage said Reform’s manifesto would include a promise to increase the amount at which workers begin paying the basic rate of income tax to £20,000
Chairman of Reform UK Richard Tice and Leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage at the launch of Reform UK’s economic policy yesterday
Mr Farage and Mr Tice dismissed suggestions that the package was ‘Trussonomics on steroids’ – a reference to former PM Liz Truss
The pair acknowledged that the pledge would cost around £40billion at a press conference unveiling it in Westminster.
They claimed it could largely be paid for by scrapping the interest paid to banks by the Bank of England (BoE), with Mr Tice claiming that taxpayers’ money was being used by the BoE ‘to enrich the City of London’ in an act of ‘gross negligence’.
However, the party’s draft manifesto also states that it wants to scrap VAT on energy bills, slash fuel duty by 20p a litre, cut stamp duty to zero per cent on properties worth up to £750,000, reduce corporation tax to 15 per cent from 25 per cent, increase the Inheritance Tax threshold to £2million and raise the amount small businesses start paying VAT on turnover from £90,000 to £150,000.
Mr Farage and Mr Tice dismissed suggestions that the package was ‘Trussonomics on steroids’ – a reference to former Prime Minister Liz Truss, whose tax-slashing mini-budget triggered economic turmoil in September 2022.
Asked about comments by the Tories’ Miriam Cates, who branded the package ‘unaffordable’ and a ‘fantasy’, Mr Farage said: ‘There’s a growing level of economic opinion that says we can afford it.
‘So with respect, I would ask Miriam Cates to have another look.’
Mr Tice added: ‘The draft [manifesto] we’ve had out there… actually, it does set out the costs, how you pay for it and where you invest it.’
Suggesting cutting waste in the public sector would also help fund the pledges, he said: ‘We’ve got to cut waste in the back office and invest it in the front office, on the frontline.
‘That’s what you do in business, that’s how you become more productive, that’s how you succeed and grow.’
But Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, told the Daily Mail: ‘It has been suggested by Reform UK that very big personal tax cuts could be paid for by reducing the interest paid on reserves – commercial banks’ deposits – held at the Bank of England.
‘It might well be possible to raise some money in this way, but it is unlikely to even approach the £40billion annually that has been suggested – much less than half of that sum.
‘As ever, there is no simple free lunch: This would operate in much the same way as a tax on banks.
‘The amount raised would also fluctuate over time, falling as the Bank of England base rate falls.
‘The many tens of billions of pounds of tax cuts proposed would, therefore, need to be funded by definite tax increases or spending cuts elsewhere before long.
‘We saw the consequences of very big unfunded tax cuts in September 2022.’
The pair acknowledged that the tax-cutting pledge would cost around £40billion at a press conference unveiling it in Westminster
The party leader and chairman claimed their plan could largely be paid for by scrapping the interest paid to banks by the Bank of England
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘The truth is, Reform knows they’re never going to get into Government so they can say anything they like.
‘They know it’s not deliverable. It’s la la land politics.
‘Don’t get me wrong, I think we need to do more to reduce taxation. But a wishlist like this just wouldn’t happen. They’re taking the public for complete fools.’
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who was Deputy Chair of the Public Accounts Committee before Parliament was dissolved, added: ‘These Reform policies are completely barking. It’s just absolute nonsense.’
Mr Farage also dismissed comments from former Home Secretary Suella Braverman that there was not much difference between the Tories and Reform and that the latter party should welcome Mr Farage back into the Conservative fold.
He said: ‘I had my cup of tea ready for the 5.30am news on the BBC this morning, and I actually spat quite a lot of it down my dressing gown when I heard her saying that.’
He added that he would invite her to join Reform if it wins seats at the election, adding: ‘Once we’ve established the electoral beachhead for Reform, in the House of Commons, then of course I will say to Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick ‘come and join our party, we’d love to have you’.
He also said: ‘What they’ve done, allowing nearly two and a half million people to settle in the country in the last two years, is most certainly not our policy.
‘So I do like her, I do admire her, but I’m afraid at the moment all marriage plans are off.’
