Nigel Farage Promises Huge Cuts To Welfare Budget
2 min read
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage used his speech at his party conference today to promise swathes of welfare cuts if elected.
The party leader told Reform UK members in Birmingham that he plans, over the next few months, to “outline some serious cuts" to the welfare budget.
He said: “It is not fair on people that get up with their alarm every morning, go to work and pay their taxes. For those that choose a different lifestyle to earn more money than they do, it is morally wrong – it is outrageous.”
Until now the most notable Reform policy on social security has been its support for ditching the two-child benefit cap – seen as a controversial policy among the party's supporters.
In June Keir Starmer was forced to offer significant concessions on his welfare reforms after over 130 Labour MPs signed an amendment that threatened to block the government's plans. The watered-down bill still saw the government's working majority cut from 165 to 75, with 49 Labour MPs voting against.
Farage also announced today that Zia Yusuf, who currently heads the party’s Doge (Department of Government Efficiency) unit, will become head of policy for Reform and that the party will establish a new Department of Preparing for Government.
“I will in the next few weeks open up a new department within the party leading on the experience that Nadine [Dorries] and others have. And others will come. Others with experience will come. Don’t worry about that,” he said.
The Reform leader brought forward his speech from 5pm to 1pm on Friday after Angela Rayner resigned from government. Farage said the government was “deep in crisis” after Rayner’s resignation over her tax affairs, and warned party activists to prepare for an election in 2027.
“We have topped over 100 of the last opinion polls, our lead is between 10 and 15 per cent against any of the other parties and I tell you what, given the state that we’re in, I think we can increase that lead further yet.”
In a speech that resembled Farage’s greatest hits, he promised to stop small boat crossings within two weeks of winning power, begin mass deportations, ban the Muslim Brotherhood and “scrap ridiculous harmful wasteful net-zero”.
Dorries, former Tory MP and cabinet minister, announced she would defect from the Conservative Party to Reform late Thursday night. In between Farage’s address, Dorries made a short speech on the main conference stage, telling Reform members the upcoming election would be the most important in generations.
