Nigel Farage’s No2, Richard Tice, has said he is plotting to slash public funding to 35% of GDP – which would wipe out a massive £275billion amid questions about Reform’s NHS plans
Nigel Farage’s “reckless” economic plans would see the entire NHS, armed forces, police and criminal justice budgets wiped out, startling new analysis shows.
Comments by the Reform leader’s No2 indicate the party wants to slash £274billion from government spending – more than five times Liz Truss’s unfunded tax measures. Richard Tice, who is tipped as Mr Farage’s choice for Chancellor, is accused of planning a dangerous “game of roulette”.
The brutal analysis comes after Mr Tice hinted during a podcast recording he would take an axe to public spending, without saying what services he would cut. He told the Politics Inside Out podcast last week he would like to see the size of the state reduced to just over one-third of GDP with public spending down to 35% of GDP.
This would see a savage £274 billion cut from government budgets, based on current GDP figures. Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones, said: “Reckless Richard Tice would play a game of roulette with Britain’s finances that would mean chaos, cuts and decline.
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“Nigel Farage has spoken openly about how Reform would finish NHS funding through general taxation in favour of expensive healthcare insurance.
“Now whilst Farage announces more spending commitments, Tice shoots the breeze about choking off the funds for vital frontline services.
“They can’t tell us how any of this would work. We only know that it would lead to devastating cuts to our public services and provoke another financial crisis just like Liz Truss ’s mini Budget.”
Budget settlements from official Treasury figures in 2024 showed the public cash awarded to the NHS amounted to £188.5 billion. The Ministry of Defence receives nearly £54billion, the Home Office gets over £20billion while Ministry of Justice funding comes in at almost £12billion.
Public spending is currently around 45% of GDP. Mr Tice told the podcast, hosted by former Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth: “At 35% of GDP, things were working more. No one was saying back in the mid-nineties, to my recollection, the NHS is bust and broken and needs fundamental reform.”
It comes amid serious questions about how Reform plans to fund the NHS. In April Mr Farage declared: “I do not want it [the NHS] funded through general taxation. It doesn’t work. It’s not working.”
Labour analysis has shown that Reform’s previously announced £80billion of unfunded spending commitments could lead to an increase in mortgage payments for the average family by an eyewatering £5,500 a year – with increased borrowing pushing up interest rates and bills.
It comes after Tory frontbencher Chris Philp, who was Chief Secretary to the Treasury when Ms Truss announced her disastrous mini-Budget in 2022, also voiced alarm about Reform.
He told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that Nigel Farage’s team wants to go even bigger on unfunded tax cuts.
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