Farage to Scrap Net Zero to Fund Giveaway for Families

Nigel Farage has pitched an £80 billion tax-slashing, family-boosting spree funded by axing Net Zero and public sector waste. The Mail has the details.

The Reform leader trolled that Keir Starmer is “terrified” of the threat from the insurgents as he committed to scrap the two-child benefit cap altogether and fully restore winter fuel payments.

Alongside the moves on the totemic issues for Left-wingers, Mr Farage used a press conference in Westminster to announce plans for a transferable marriage tax allowance worth around £1,000 a year.

However, Reform is facing mounting questions about how they plan to pay for the extraordinary giveaways, with national opinion polls suggesting they might end up in a position to implement the policies.

The respected IFS think-tank said the flagship proposal to increase the personal allowance from around £12,000 to £20,000 would cost between £50 billion and £80 billion by itself. …

He argued that £40 billion a year could be saved nationally by scrapping Net Zero, as well as billions more by axing “DEI” initiatives and quangos – although he conceded his hopes for savings might be “slightly optimistic”.

The party would also stop “young, undocumented males” coming across the Channel and being put up in “five star hotels” with “free dental”.

Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride said the pledges amounted to well over £60 billion of extra spending, while Reform supporter Tim Mongtomerie this morning admitted the sums do not yet “add up”.

Mr Farage’s intervention is designed to embarrass Sir Keir, as the PM and ministers wrestle over proposals for cutting benefits. …

Mr Farage denied there was a contradiction between being “the party of workers” and the “party of entrepreneurs”.

And the Reform chief said lifting the two-child benefit cap was a way of helping “British families” rather than people who “come in and have a lot of kids”. …

The married couple tax allowance would exempt one spouse from paying tax on the first £25,000 of their income.

The other would enjoy a tax-free income of £20,000, the level to which Reform has promised to raise the threshold for the basic rate.

At present, workers pay the 20% rate of income tax on everything between £12,570 and £50,270. Critics say that move alone would cost at least £50 billion.

Mr Farage said: “We need to encourage people to have families and ensure they feel financially able to have them. The collapsing birth rate in the UK, now well below the rates needed, is an existential crisis for our country. The Tories and Labour have sought to solve it with open borders.” …

Mr Farage said Reform would pay for winter fuel payments and ending the two-child benefit cap by scrapping Net Zero and the “DEI agenda”. …

“If we win the next election, we will scrap Net Zero, something that is costing the Exchequer an extraordinary £40 billion plus every year. There will be no more asylum hotels or houses of multiple occupancy. People who come here illegally, across the channel or on the back of lorries will not be allowed to stay. We will scrap the DEI agenda, which is costing the taxpayer up to £7 billion a year throughout the public sector, and yes, we see considerable savings to be made amongst the quangos.

“So yes, I do accept that these proposals, especially the one of lifting to £20,000 the level at which people start paying tax, I accept that it’s expensive, but I genuinely believe that we can pay for it because we’re not ideologically tied to the same ideas upon which we believe the Conservative and Labour governments have gone so wrong.” …

Mr Farage also declared that he would reverse the deal to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and pay billions of pounds to lease back the Diego Garcia military base.

However, it is unclear how Reform would do that after the treaty has been ratified.

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