The
Reform UK leader laid out a series of economic
promises ...designed to take advantage of disquiet among Labour voters at the government’s policies on taxes and benefits. But while Farage
promised up to £80bn worth of new spending – including scrapping the two-child benefit cap and increasing winter fuel payments – he did not explain exactly how they could be paid for.
Helen Miller, the deputy director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said:
“The risk is that we hear much more about sizeable giveaways on tax and benefits while getting nothing like the same amount of specificity about the big cuts to spending on public services that would be needed for the plan to be implementable.”
One of Farage’s main revenue-raising policies is to scrap the government’s commitment to reaching net zero by 2050, which he said would save £45bn a year, citing calculations by the Institute for Government (IfG). But Jill Rutter, a senior fellow at the IfG, said the Reform leader had used a figure that included both public sector and private sector investment.
Farage himself admitted his sums might not add up, but insisted they gave “an idea of direction, policy, of priorities, of what we think is important, of what we think it is going to cost”.
...he made three main policy announcements: ending the two-child benefit cap, reversing the cuts to winter fuel payments and increasing tax breaks for married couples. He refused, however, to guarantee keeping the pensions triple lock, which ensures the state pension rises by the highest of inflation, earnings growth or 2.5% a year. He also
promised more generous tax breaks for married people should he win the next election...
the Guardian
Mot will be along shortly to explain the difference between a promise and an 'opportunity'.
