Farage to row back from tax cuts as he pledges ‘most pro-business’ government

Nigel Farage will pledge to form “the most pro-business” government in British history if Reform UK comes to power as he sets out his economic plans on Monday.

The Reform leader is expected to use a speech in London to promise sweeping deregulation, arguing the UK has not made the most of Brexit.

According to media reports, Mr Farage is expected to say: “The harsh truth is that regulations and regulators, in many areas, are worse than they were back in 2016.”

Promising to “free businesses to get on and make more money”, he will say: “Reform UK will do things very differently.

“We will be the most pro-business, pro-entrepreneurship government this country has seen in modern times.

“This will mean more well-paid jobs for workers.”

But Mr Farage will also row back from his party’s 2024 promise to cut £90 billion of taxes, saying Labour and the Tories have “wrecked the public finances” and Reform would need to get public spending under control first.

Reform’s manifesto committed the party to tax cuts worth around a third of the NHS budget, including raising the personal allowance to £20,000, introducing a £100,000 tax-free allowance for companies and exempting some high street firms from business rates.

At the time, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said the plans, along with £50 billion of spending commitments and £150 billion of cuts, were “problematic” and cost far more than Reform claimed.

Labour said Mr Farage’s new proposals would “take us back to austerity”.

A party spokesperson said: “We’ve seen from the councils Reform run that they’ve failed to deliver the savings they already promised and are cutting services and raising taxes as a result.

“They’ve said themselves that those councils are a shop window for what a Reform government would do nationally – we know that this is more empty promises and no real plan.”

Conservative shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said Reform could not be taken seriously on the economy “when their promises disintegrate after five minutes, and they remain committed to extra welfare spending and a huge expansion of the state”.

He said: “They are a one-man band and have resorted to junking promises they made only recently in a desperate attempt to appear economically credible.

“In local government they have failed to find savings and are instead planning tax hikes on hard-working families.”