Nigel Farage declared Reform “really are the party of working people” as he parked his tanks squarely on Labour’s lawn at a high-profile press conference. To prove it, Mr Farage confirmed a heavily-leaked series of policies including restoring winter fuel payments for all pensioners, and ending the two-child benefit cap which currently prevents parents from claiming child tax credit or universal credit for more than two children.
In addition, he announced plans for a marriage tax allowance, allowing many married couples to pay less tax, especially when one of them is a stay-at-home parent. The Reform leader even challenged Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to a public debate to be held in “a working-men’s club somewhere in the red wall.”
But there was a second message here. Mr Farage wants to make it easier for Brits to have babies. He warned there are couples who want to start a family but are “terrified” about the cost, and his proposed benefit changes are designed to make Britain breed again.
It’s his response to a demographic timebomb which means the number of older people – claiming state pensions and making heavy use of the NHS – is rising while the number of working-age people who have to pay for it all is falling.
One answer to this conundrum is immigration. Some people think we should import young people from overseas.
But Mr Farage wants us to make our own. Get in the bedroom!
The Reform leader insists he really can be the next Prime Minister. “Something extraordinary is happening,” he said.
One of Labour’s responses is to claim Mr Farage can’t be the voice of working people because he’s a bit posh.
How can this privately-educated and plummy-voiced former stockbroker possibly represent the working class, they ask?
It’s a tactic doomed to failure. British voters have enough common sense to judge politicians on what they say, not what sort of accent they say it in.
Where Labour may have more luck is in criticising Reform’s policy proposals.
Mr Farage seems to be planning a lot of spending. High profile Reform activist Tim Montgomerie, a former Tory who advised party leaders, admitted in a radio interview on Tuesday that the sums don’t add up.
Labour’s decision to means-test winter fuel payments was both cruel and foolish. But while there is a strong argument for ending means-testing entirely – rather than just raising the threshold as Labour appears to be planning – it does leave you open to claims that you want to hand free money to millionaire boomers. Are the young people expressing their admiration for Nigel on TikTok, where he has a huge following, going to welcome that?
And ending the two-child benefit cap won’t please everyone. Plenty of voters think the cap is a good idea, including many “working people” who struggle to take care of their own family on modest wages.
With Labour also on course to announce it opposes the cap there is now an opening for Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch to position herself as the real champion of hard-working parents.
But it’s a policy that makes sense in the context of Mr Farage’s plan to make more British babies.
