17 June 2024 , 14:25
903
0
Nigel Farage has been told his sums don’t add up as he unveiled plans for a £140billion tax-slashing splurge which paves the way for swingeing cuts to public services.
The Reform UK leader admitted he had no chance of winning the General Election with his new “contract” for voters. But addressing an adoring crowd of candidates in a social club in Merthyr Tydfil, Mr Farage claimed he was gunning to be PM in 2029.
"This election is for our party, and for me, the first important step on the road to 2029," he said. "Our ambition is to establish a bridgehead in Parliament, and to become a real opposition to a Labour government."
Flanked by two huge Union Jack flags, Mr Farage delivered a 30-minute rant about how Britain is "broken" and won laughs from the crowd when he derided Foreign Secretary David Cameron as a Remainer.
Nigel Farage set out a massive tax-slashing contract for voters (AFP via Getty Images)Mr Farage said he'd chosen to come to the site - a historically deprived part of Wales which has one of the country's largest housing estates - for his launch to make his point about how the Tories are failing in opposition to a Labour government in Wales.
Welsh Labour prepare for snap election as Tories on brink of being 'overwhelmed'
But his presence in the newly created seat of Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare, which is formed out of two Labour strongholds, did not draw the crowds of his visit to Clacton, Essex. Around 30 people were gathered outside to see him leave, some coming out of their houses to find out why there were so many police officers patrolling the streets around the Gurnos Club where the launch took place.
Reform's offer to voters contains plans to freeze all non-essential immigration, to strip people of their benefits if they don't find a job in four months and a near impossible commitment to eradicate NHS waiting lists in two years.
The plans also include bumper giveaways, including plans to raise the income tax threshold from £12,571 to £20,000, while raising the higher rate threshold from £50,000 to £70,000. Stamp duty would be scrapped on properties worth less than £750,000 and inheritance tax would be axed on estates worth less than £2million.
Reform claims these huge commitments can be funded by "slashing public sector back office bureaucracy" worth £50billion a year. But the blueprint was immediately torn to shreds by experts.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank said Reform's plans are based on "extremely optimist assumptions" about growth and the sums "do not add up". Carl Emmerson, deputy director of the IFS, said Reform’s plans to save cash would "would almost certainly require substantial cuts to the quantity or quality of public services”.
Mr Farage dismissed the concerns, saying: "All change is problematic."