What are Reform UK’s policies? Does anybody know?
They say they will cut taxes, yet councils they control across the country have put up taxes.
They promised to cut ‘waste’ in local Government, then claimed they couldn’t find any.
They claim to be pro-business and promise to create a pro-enterprise environment, but they argued to nationalise British Steel, then just weeks ago dropped a pledge to nationalise, this time, water companies.
They said they will scrap the two-child benefits cap, only to later decided they will keep it.
Confused? You’re not alone. Reform’s own MPs are so confused one of them voted to get rid of the two-child cap after the announcement to keep it.
Of course, political parties should adapt their policies as circumstances change. But Reform lurch forwards and backwards like a queasy child on a rollercoaster during the Easter holidays.
In Kent, Reform won control of the County Council, claiming there was plenty of unnecessary spending they could do away with. This was all part of not having to increase Council Tax. The national party’s ‘DOGE’ unit entered the Council aiming to make cuts to spending. Despite outlandish pre-election claims of “debt” and “gross financial mismanagement,” they had no clear plans beyond bringing in auditors.
What happened? To quote a Reform Kent Cabinet Member: “Everyone thought we’d come in and there were going to be these huge costs we could cut away but there just aren’t… We just want more money.” An admission the previous Conservative administration was running a lean and efficient council before Reform took power.
The end result was that this year Kent County Council, run by Reform, put up Council tax by just under 4%.
Saving money takes more than catchy headlines. It requires meaningful, innovative changes to how councils operate.
Elsewhere, Reform appears not to have grasped the importance of local government efficiency at all. In Worcestershire, its administration, lacking any self-awareness, billed taxpayers £144 for lunch during a visit from Zia Yusuf – ironically the head of Reform’s DOGE unit. Reform councillors offered to repay the money after the cost and hypocrisy were highlighted by Conservative councillors.
More recently, Reform-led Worcestershire has increased Council tax by 8.98% and charged residents half a million pounds for consultants from PWC to deliver “transformational change.”
This isn’t the end of Reform’s backtracking on promises to reduce taxes. Nigel Farage has abandoned promises of up to £90 billion in tax cuts admitting they are “not realistic at this current moment in time” – the original plans had already been challenged by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Reform have been making big promises but as we have seen where they are in power in local government those big promises have failed to materialise. At a national level the Party seems confused about what it stands for and what its policies are.
The moral of all this is yet again you may be voting for change but be careful what you wish for!
P.S. I recently wrote the Labour Government should scrap their planned rise in Fuel Duty in light of the War in Iran and rising oil prices.
While our Government has failed to act, the list of countries taking action through tax cuts or subsidies grows, including France, Italy, Greece, Ireland, parts of Australia, and Vietnam.
Now even the Government’s own cost of living advisor says the fuel duty increase should be scrapped.
By Cllr Pauline Jorgensen
