Wednesday, May 28, 2025
Reform facing a reality check
The Guardian reports that the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said Reform UK’s plans to raise the threshold for paying income tax to £20,000 would cost between £50bn and £80bn:
PA Media reports Stuart Adam, a senior economist at the research institute, said the announcements on winter fuel and the two-child benefit cap were “dwarfed” by the tax policy.
He told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme: “Those are all significant things, and they are high-profile new public announcements, but actually they are all still dwarfed by some of the big policies that were in the manifesto last year, and today Nigel Farage recommitted to increasing the income tax allowance to £20,000, which depending on details might cost £50bn, £60bn, £70bn, £80bn.”
Meanwhile, the Independent tells us that Labour has called on Nigel Farage to take action after an image emerged from a Reform local election stunt depicting female cabinet ministers as cows in an abattoir:
The roadside setup in Hertsmere, Hertfordshire, shows deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, chancellor Rachel Reeves and education secretary Bridget Phillipson depicted as cows waiting to be slaughtered.
The stunt, pictured by a passerby and passed to The Independent, was damned as “dehumanising” and “misogynistic”.
It has shocked political parties in Westminster, where MPs, including Mr Farage, are having to take extra security measures to protect themselves from potential attacks.
The imagery of a slaughterhouse has brought back memories of attacks on MPs, including the deaths of Labour’s Jo Cox and the later Tory MP David Amess.
Other MPs have been attacked, including Labour minister Stephen Timms, who was stabbed. And the danger faced by politicians was underlined last week when homes linked to prime minister Sir Keir Starmer were set on fire.
A Labour spokesperson said: “This is a dehumanising and misogynistic portrayal of hardworking female cabinet members who are delivering change for our country on behalf of the British people.
“If Nigel Farage wants his party to be in any way seen as remotely professional, he should start by condemning this ‘stunt’ and confirming nothing like this will happen again.”
A Lib Dem spokesperson added: “This is horrifically misogynistic and, after seeing politicians murdered in recent years, inferring that some should also be sent to an abattoir cannot be dressed up as anything other than an attack on democracy.
“Nigel Farage needs to step in and launch a full investigation, and anyone associated with this vile stunt must be expelled from Reform.”
With Reform now in charge of numerous local councils this may just be the start of the embarrassing blunders, revealing the reality of Farage's party, while the uncosted promises continue to flow. The only question is whether these revelations will actually dent Reform's poll `ratings.
