Nigel Farage has declared that the 2024 general election should be centered on immigration, as he presented his party’s proposals in South Wales.
The Reform Party leader advocated for a “freeze” on non-essential immigration, attributing issues such as NHS waiting lists and the housing crisis to current immigration policies. He criticized other political parties for avoiding the topic.
Farage emphasized that his proposals, presented at a community center bar in Gurnos, Merthyr Tydfil, were a contract, not a manifesto. He stated, “If I say to you ‘manifesto,’ your immediate word association is ‘lie.'”
A prominent Eurosceptic, Farage served as a Member of the European Parliament for over 20 years until the UK’s exit from the EU in 2020. He also led the Brexit Party and UKIP before founding Reform UK. “Guess who’s back,” he joked as he began his speech.
The event focused heavily on immigration, with Farage claiming, “Britain is broken” and “in decline culturally,” suggesting that halting immigration would help the country recover. He acknowledged that Reform UK is a “very, very new” political party, aiming to build a foundation in Parliament for a potential government role by 2029.
“Our ambition is to establish a bridgehead in Parliament, and to become a real opposition to a Labour government,” Farage said, criticizing other parties as ineffective and describing the Tories as “split down the middle.”
Farage stressed the need to create a “big, genuine mass movement of people” and a “strong opposition that can mobilize people in very large numbers.”
Reform UK’s core pledges include a freeze on “non-essential” immigration and the deportation of people crossing the Channel in small boats. The party also proposes cutting back-office waste and offering tax breaks to doctors and nurses to eliminate NHS waiting lists, and plans to eliminate income tax on earnings under £20,000.
Additionally, Reform UK aims to scrap Net Zero targets and instead exploit the UK’s remaining oil and gas reserves. The party also wants to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.
Reform’s proposed tax cuts are estimated to cost nearly £90 billion per year, with spending increases projected at about £50 billion annually. The party claims these expenses could be offset by £150 billion per year in savings from other areas, including:
- Stopping the Bank of England from paying interest to commercial banks on quantitative easing reserves, saving £35 billion annually.
- Cutting bureaucracy and improving efficiency, saving £50 billion a year.
- Scrapping net zero targets, saving £30 billion annually.
- Reducing the foreign aid budget by 50%, saving £6 billion a year.
- Encouraging benefit claimants to return to work, saving £15 billion a year.
However, Carl Emmerson, deputy director at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), described the overall package as problematic. He stated, “Even with extremely optimistic assumptions about economic growth, the sums in this manifesto do not add up.” The IFS also noted that reducing the interest paid on Bank of England reserves would raise “much less than half” the amount estimated by Reform UK, emphasizing that “there is no simple free lunch.”