Reform UK Warned It Needs To Get Serious About The Economy
Reform UK conference 2025 (Alamy)
5 min read
Reform UK remains comfortably ahead of Labour and the Conservatives in the polls, and the party's leading figures often spoke at its conference with full confidence that Nigel Farage is set to become the next prime minister.
But with success comes scrutiny – and Reform is now facing calls for it to get serious about the economy.
William Yarwood, media campaign manager at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: “Reform members clearly understand just how dire Britain’s finances have become, but they’re crying out for the party to put serious economic policies on the table.
"The party has professionalised and started work on policy, but with talk of a potential IMF bailout in the air, time is of the essence, and their members are right to demand urgency and clarity.”
Reem Ibrahim, head of media at the Institute for Economic Affairs, a free market think tank, similarly said many Reform members were "eagerly" awaiting Reform to put forward a clear vision on the economy.
“Having spoken to lots of Reform Party members at this year’s conference, it is clear that they understand how dire Britain’s economic standing is. They are all aware that difficult decisions need to be made, and are eagerly waiting for the leadership to put some serious economic policies on the table.”
Jonathan Brown, CEO of Reform-linked think tank Centre for a Better Britain, said: “Donors and affluent swing voters are looking for reassurances that a potential government can reduce the deficit and lower taxes with a credible plan, and not repeat Liz Truss’ mistakes.”
He warned that, if the country did not get a grip on age-related spending, the UK could face a “proper economic debt crisis within the next year, maybe before Christmas".
Maxwell Marlow, director of Public Affairs for ASI, said: “Reform champions common sense economics, which is often sound. However, economics can often be nonsensical – at the Adam Smith Institute and JTI panel, Sarah Pochin MP acknowledged that the 'genie was out of the bottle' for online retail, but a tax would rectify the ‘injustice’ of a flagging high-street.
“What is required is a permissive regulatory regime to allow businesses to thrive, innovate, and compete away from taxation, whilst also letting ordinary Brits to use Amazon and other services without the state intervening. I believe Reform, as they develop their platforms, will move away from a tax-led model, and we look forward to working with them (as we do with all parties) to ensure that voters at the next election can choose a pro-prosperity party.”
Free market voices and right-of-centre experts are increasingly concerned the UK could slide into a sovereign debt crisis. Ewen Stewart, a City economist, told a Reform conference event that only Greece had increased its debt levels faster over the last 20 years than the UK.
There is an awareness at the top of Reform that the UK's economic problems will require facing up to difficult decisions in government.
Speaking to PoliticsHome, Reform deputy leader Richard Tice said: “I do [see] that we have to get debt-to-GDP down. The way to do that is through growth and by bluntly slashing unproductive spending and slashing unproductive, daft regulations.”
In an interview with The House magazine, Farage agreed that bringing down debt levels was essential. “If we don’t, we’re done for,” he said. “Gilts will become junk bonds. If we don’t, we’ll become a third world country in terms of relative prosperity.”
One party insider told PoliticsHome: “Labour struggled to make benefit cuts, which were around £5bn. I think we are going to have to do cuts which are multiple of that.”
On Saturday morning, Tice attacked Reform’s critics, including the BBC, saying they were not paying enough attention to the party’s plans to cut spending as well as taxes.
At a Growth Commission event at Reform conference, hosted by former Liz Truss adviser Jonathan Isaby, Tice told members: “Savings matter, because if you create the savings, then you can afford to invest that in the tax cuts.”
Reform promised a total of £150bn in savings and £141bn in spending cuts in the 2024 election, but the plans were not detailed. The manifesto said £30bn would be saved by scrapping net-zero plans and tax subsidies, and a further £15bn saved in benefits after getting people "back to work".
Economists have poured cold water over Reform's hopes to increase the personal allowance to £20,000 a year, which the Institute for Fiscal Studies believe could cost the taxpayer as much as £80bn annually. Raising the personal allowance was a long-running policy of the previous Conservative government and appears to be popular with Reform members.
At the conference in Birmingham, Michael, a train conductor from the North West of England, told PoliticsHome the move "helps the poorest", adding: “To people who earn £18,000 a year, to release them from not paying tax for the majority of the year, it’s a huge difference.”
But it is less clear how Reform would reconcile such pledges with its promise to reduce the UK's debt-to-GDP ratio.
Reform member Andrew, a pensioner donning a hat with "God, Guns and Trump" across it, told PoliticsHome he was not “naive” enough to believe Reform could sort the country’s myriad problems overnight.
“[Farage] yesterday, for example, said within weeks of taking power we will return [the boats]. That’s a Trump statement. He's saying something which is just not possible because he won't be allowed to do it under the HRA [Human Rights Act].”
The party has begun to row back on some of its spending pledges. Tice said in May that cutting taxes by £90bn was “the direction of travel” rather than a concrete promise.
Farage told members in his leader’s speech on Friday that Reform would unleash huge welfare cuts if elected. Until now the party's most notable policy on social security has been its support for ditching the two-child benefit cap, a move estimated to cost £3bn a year.
