Nigel Farage is no stranger to political earthquakes, and his Reform UK party produced another one in the recent elections – securing 10 councils, two mayoralties and another MP. With this shift towards more local and regional power, the party’s policies will come under more scrutiny.
Reform voters strongly support public ownership across public services – 87% want water in public hands and the numbers for rail (77%), Royal Mail (77%) and energy (75%) are also clear. No wonder when we keep paying more for less. So what about the leadership, where do they stand?
The NHS is the big one and probably the hardest to pin down. 82% of Reform voters don’t want privatisation of one of our country’s proudest achievements.
In the past Nigel Farage has said “I think we’re going to have to move to an insurance-based system of healthcare”. He has also hinted at copying the French model under which patients pay at least a portion of the treatment costs up front.
In terms of funding their highly ambitious target to cut NHS waiting lists to zero in two years, they are proposing £50 billion of funding cuts to other government departments. After 14 years of austerity, I’m not sure what there is left to cut.
Perhaps someone should tell the newly elected Reform councillors in places like Durham and Lincolnshire that Nigel won’t be harvesting the magic money tree any time soon. On water and energy their policy is bolder than the Labour government’s but can be described as a bit of a fudge.
They propose a 50/50 ownership model, where the government takes a 50% stake in ‘critical national infrastructure’ and the remainder is owned by pension companies.
Whilst this looks like a step in the right direction, it is unclear who would have the controlling stake, government or the pension funds. In a worst case scenario this could lead to the taxpayer shouldering the risk, whilst the pension funds reap the benefit.
For capital hungry industries like water and energy, it is far better to remove the profit motive altogether, this way the entire surplus is reinvested in the system.
When it comes to fixing the creaking water infrastructure and boosting clean energy to lower bills, we will need every penny to be working hard for the British public. The best way to do that is with full public ownership.
Nigel Farage had one of his biggest political wins trumpeting those three famous words ‘take back control’ – but will he deliver? The British people are overwhelmingly in favour of public ownership of our key national assets.
At the moment Mr Farage is playing to the crowd but also keeping the door open for his corporate pals, sooner or later he’s going to have to pick a side.