According to the latest survey by YouGov, the right-wing Reform UK is now just one-point ahead of Labour. Here The Mirror takes a look at some of the party’s key policies
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has taken a narrow lead over Keir Starmer’s Labour – topping a national YouGov poll for the first time.
According to the latest survey by the pollster, the right-wing party is now just one-point ahead of Labour after recently closing the gap. It also shows the Conservatives trailing behind in third place.
The YouGov poll found Reform UK ahead of the Tories by four points as Kemi Badenoch, who has been leader for three months, struggles to repair the party’s damaged brand after its worst-ever election result in July 2024 after 14 years in power.
While the polling lead for Reform UK over Labour is within the margin of error, Mr Farage has boasted it means “Britain wants Reform”. Here The Mirror takes a look at some of the right-wing party’s key policies.
Freeze all ‘non-essential immigration’
Reform said it wanted to freeze “all non-essential immigration” – but it was not exactly clear what the party meant by “essential”.
The party also said it would hike National Insurance for businesses that employ foreign workers to 20%, except for essential health and care workers and for businesses with fewer than five employees.
And it would quit the European Convention on Human Rights – joining two nations, Russia and Belarus as outsiders – while picking up “illegal migrants out of boats” and taking them back to France. Details were lacking on how exactly that would work.
Scrapping inheritance tax on ‘98% of estates’
Mr Farage’s party set out plans to raise the income tax threshold from £12,571 to £20,000, while raising the higher rate threshold from £50,000 to £70,000.
Stamp duty would be scrapped on properties worth less than £750,000 and inheritance tax would be axed on estates worth less than £2million.
Reform claims these huge commitments can be funded by “slashing public sector back office bureaucracy” worth £50billion a year. But in a brutal assessment of the party’s policies last year the Institute for Fiscal Studies said the “sums in this manifesto do not add up”.
It was added the plans “would almost certainly require substantial cuts to the quantity or quality of public services”.
Axing climate net zero target
Despite the climate crisis, Reform UK said it would ditch the country’s legally binding targets to reduce greenhouse glass emissions to net zero by 2050.
Mr Farage’s party claims the net zero policies are pushing up people’s bills and vows to scrap key subsidies, including £10billion a year for renewable energy. But most experts agree that without action on the climate emergency the costs will be greater in the long-term.
Instead, Reform wants to tax renewables, fast-track new North Sea oil and gas licences, and allow fracking licences on test sites for two years.
Vouchers for private healthcare
Reform UK pledged to eliminate NHS waiting lists in two years, with a cash injection of £17billion a year for health.
Reform would give patients a voucher for a private GP if they haven’t been seen in three days, three weeks for a consultant or nine weeks for an operation. The service would still be free at the point of use.
Stripping benefits from jobseekers
All jobseekers will be stripped of their benefits if they don’t find work within four months or accept a job after two offers. No details were given on how this may impact poverty levels across the country.
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But Reform says its welfare plans will save £15billion a year by getting a million people back to work.
Defence spending hike
Mr Farage’s party says it will increase defence spending by 2.5% of Britain’s national output in three years and then to 3% in six.
But the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) said in 2022 that increasing defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030 would require an additional £157billion over eight years. Reform has budgeted £14billion a year for its defence commitments
Scrap planned renters’ reform laws
Reform’s manifesto made clear it would scrap planned reforms to renters’ rights – a law currently making its way through Parliament.
This would mean the section 21 notices – no fault evictions – would remain, allowing landlords to kick tenants out on a whim and without reason.
The party also proposed reforming the tax system to benefit smaller landlords but made no reference to the surging rental costs for renters. It said: “We will restore landlords’ rights to deduct finance costs and mortgage interest from tax on rental income”.