Do Reform UK’s election claims on tax, immigration and environment add up?

Richard Tice, the chair of Reform UK, and Nigel Farage, the party leader, announce the party's general election proposals. Photograph: Victoria Jones/Rex/Shutterstock

Reform UK insists its plans are “not just another party manifesto”, because it does not expect to win the election. But there are a lot of policy ideas in its 28-page “contract” with the electorate. Here are the main proposals from Nigel Farage’s party.

Economy and taxation

• In short: Liz Truss on steroids. There would be cuts to personal tax worth £70bn a year, including scrapping income tax below £20,000, and big cuts to stamp duty and inheritance tax. Cuts to business levies including corporation tax would cost £18bn a year.

• Reform says this would be paid for by scrapping plans to reach net zero carbon emissions (more on that below), plus £50bn a year from cutting government departments and quangos, and £35bn from the technical process of making the Bank of England stop paying interest on commercial bank deposits created through quantitative easing.

• All this could be filed under “fiscally bold”. The Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank termed the package “problematic”, saying: “Even with the extremely optimistic assumptions about how much economic growth would increase, the sums in this manifesto do not add up.”

Immigration

• There is only so much room to the right of the Conservatives on this subject, but Reform would use most of it, pledging a freeze on “non-essential” immigration, with only a handful of exceptions, and higher national insurance imposed on overseas workers.

• On asylum seekers, Reform would take Britain out of the European convention on human rights (ECHR), process people offshore and “pick up illegal migrants out of boats and take them back to France”.

• On small boat crossings, there would be significant doubts about whether, even outside the ECHR, the UK could actually return asylum seekers to France. And a freeze on immigration, even with limited exceptions for the NHS, could have a significant impact on the social care and hospitality sectors.

Environment and energy

• A major part of Reform’s offer is to roll back green targets, including to scrap net zero goals altogether, which the party says would save £30bn a year over 25 years. The International Energy Agency estimated that the UK spent less than £9bn a year between 2021 and 2023 on low-carbon energy policy. This is less than comparable developed countries, and, according to an LSE study, higher green investment is likely to lower household bills and boost growth more than tax cuts.

• The manifesto says net zero has increased bills, damaged industries such as steelmaking, and made the UK less energy secure. However, evidence from the IMF shows energy bills have risen because of the UK’s heavy reliance on imported gas.

• In terms of threats to security, the World Economic Forum put extreme weather as the leading global risk to security in 2024.

Healthcare

• As part of the tax cuts, frontline NHS and social care staff would pay zero basic-rate tax for three years, with the aim of boosting staff numbers. There would also be 20% tax relief on private health insurance.

• While Farage has called for a move away from the current NHS funding system towards one that also uses social insurance, this idea is not set out in the document. It is fair to say that the health and care plans as they stand are fairly broad.

Policing and crime

• As well as promising 40,000 more police officers, the party has pledged mass stop and search, and the end of what it terms “woke policing”.

• The sentencing regime would be significantly toughened, with mandatory life sentences for anyone convicted of drug dealing, or a second violent or serious offence. And 10,000 new prisons places would be built.

• Given that about 10,000 people a year are convicted for drug dealing alone, such policies would need a lot more prison places. Also, there is limited evidence that non-intelligence-led stop and search is effective in curbing crime – or that police forces would want to use it.

Education

• This section is low on specifics and seems to be led more by culture war issues, with the first two points calling for a “patriotic curriculum” and an end to “transgender ideology” in schools. There would be another tax cut, this one offering tax relief on private school fees.

• On universities, as well as scrapping interest on student loans – this does not seem to appear in the costings section – the party would push for two-year degrees, and cut funding to universities it felt were denying free speech.

Housing and transport

• On housing, Reform says it wants to “unleash” housebuilding, but the party would also protect landlords, scrapping plans to ban no-fault evictions or other renting changes.

• On transport, the party would end the “war on drivers”, unilaterally scrapping any clean air zones, low-traffic neighbourhoods and almost all 20mph zones.

• These sorts of policies give a flavour of the type of voter Reform wants to attract: older people who are more likely to be homeowners and drivers.

Other policies

• Social security: “motivate” people to work, and withdraw all benefits if they turn down two job offers.

• Brexit: abandon the Windsor framework, which sought to find a compromise over EU trade and not having a hard Irish border.

• Constitution and voting: replace the Lords with an elected second chamber; move towards a proportional voting system.

• Culture: scrap the BBC licence fee and the Equality Act; make St George’s and St David’s days public holidays.