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LONDON — Nigel Farage talks a good game. But what does his party actually want to do?
Farage’s populist Reform UK, which has steadily gained in the polls at the expense of Rishi Sunak’s struggling Conservatives, is aiming for nothing less than replacing the Tories.
In doing so, it’s vowing to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, scrap the U.K.’s environment goals and reform Britain’s voting system. All three featured heavily in the party’s manifesto — dubbed a “Contract With You” — as it launched in Wales Monday.
The Reform UK leader was frank that this document is “not something with which we’re going to govern the country” — it currently has just one seat, gained through a defection. But it’s climbing in the polls, and Farage sees the 2024 vote as an “first important step on the road to 2029” as Reform vies to eclipse the Tories over the course of the next parliament.
Reform’s “contract” is short on details — but pitches several “critical reforms” it says would be needed within 100 days of a new government. POLITICO pulls out the central pledges you need to know.
1) Leave the ECHR
The Tories have long flirted with leaving the European Convention on Human Rights without fully committing to it, amid challenges to the government’s controversial policy to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Long-time ECHR-critic Farage went much further Monday.
Reform’s “contract” talks up a four-point plan for stopping small boats crossing the English Channel — the first of which is to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.
It promises to reform Britain’s human rights laws so that they “put the rights of law-abiding people first.”
It reckons this is necessary to enact the rest of its asylum policy, which includes promises of “zero illegal immigrants to be resettled in the U.K.” and that “illegal migrants” in boats will be “picked up” and taken back to France.
But, alongside other consequences, leaving the ECHR would imperil the Northern Ireland Good Friday peace agreement — something that’s not touched on in the document.
2) Abolish the Northern Ireland Brexit deal
Speaking of Northern Ireland, Farage fancies ripping up the post-Brexit deal on the country’s trade rules painstakingly negotiated by Tory leader Rishi Sunak — the Windsor Framework.
The breakthrough plan aimed to resolve a host of issues with the Brexit setup governing Northern Ireland and to convince unionists in the region to return to its power-sharing government amid a boycott. The Democratic Unionist Party held out for a some time, but finally rejoined power-sharing earlier this year.
But Reform — which is (on paper at least) allied with the hardline Traditional Unionist Voice party in Northern Ireland — describes the treaty as “worse than the original” Northern Ireland Protocol it replaced.
The whole plan is meant to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland. But Reform does not say how, if it scrapped the framework, it would dodge such an outcome.
3) Freeze on ‘non-essential’ immigration
Farage has long pitched himself as an anti-immigration populist, and the first pages of Reform’s manifesto are given over to bold pledges on migration.
Most eye-catchingly, Reform’s document promises to “freeze non-essential immigration” to the U.K.
It says “essential skills, mainly around healthcare must be the only exception” — but does not go into any further detail on how this would operate. Farage has previously defined “non-essential immigration” as meaning “unskilled labor.”
Reform also calls for a new “employer immigration tax,” which would see the National Insurance employer-paid levy hiked to 20 percent for foreign workers, with limited exemptions for health workers and the smallest businesses.
It could be a vote-winner. But employers outside of the National Health Service that rely on overseas labor, such as the already-Brexit-hit hospitality sector, are unlikely to be overjoyed at that one.
4) Rip up Britain’s net zero pledges
In the past, Farage has called for a referendum on Britain’s net-zero plan to slash carbon emissions by 2050. That isn’t in his manifesto.
Instead, Reform says it would outright “scrap Net Zero and Related Subsidies.” It argues this will save the U.K. public sector £30 billion per year over 25 years, a figure based on internal party estimates which are disputed by the government’s independent climate advisers.
While it doesn’t say this in its manifesto, Reform’s website says Britain is better placed “to adapt to [global] warming, rather than pretend we can stop it.” The party calls for fracking and more nuclear energy to reduce energy costs for Brits.
5) Big tax cuts … and big spending cuts
Reform’s manifesto contains tax cuts which — according to the party’s own estimates — add up to at least £70 billion a year.
The biggest of those is a pledge to raise the earnings level at which Brits start paying income tax, a move that would lift 7 million people out of paying the levy.
To raise those sums, Reform reaches for a lever often pulled by politicians trying to find cash down the back of the sofa: cutting government waste.
Farage’s party reckons it can save billions through slashing government excess — part of which is forcing all government departments to save £5 in every £100. That means big spending cuts across public services and government departments.
In a sign of Farage’s eye for the populist measure, Reform is also plotting a raid on bank profits to help pay for the income tax cut.
6) New voting system
Despite making a big impact on national politics over the last decade, Farage himself has never entered the House of Commons and his parties have struggled to win seats.
This has led to Farage allying himself with parts of Britain’s left in calling for a more proportional voting system.
While it isn’t listed as a “critical reform” required in the first 100 days, Reform’s manifesto does promise a referendum on the current voting system, which it says shuts out new parties and leaves “large numbers of voters [with] no representation in parliament.”
In another pledge that brings Farage’s party in line with many of the left, Reform also calls for the unelected House of Lords to be replaced with a “much smaller, more democratic second chamber.”
7) Quickfire hits!
Among other things, Farage’s party also pledges to … Leave the World Health Organization Abolish inheritance tax for estates worth less than £2 million … Launch a public inquiry into Covid “vaccine harms” … Reduce taxes for frontline healthcare staff … Hand life-imprisonment to drug dealers … Get rid of “woke” policing … Ban schools from teaching about “transgender ideology” … Repeal all retained EU laws on the British statute book and renegotiate the EU trade deal … And introduce a free speech bill to stop “left-wing bias”.
