Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has accused Nigel Farage of “fantasy” economics after the Reform UK leader set out a number of policies earlier this week.
In a speech later this morning, Sir Keir is expected to liken Farage to former PM Liz Truss and say that Reform’s policies would lead to an increase in mortgage costs.
Reform made big gains in the English local elections earlier this month, cementing it as a prime challenger to Britain’s traditional main parties.
A spokesperson for Reform dismissed the prime minister’s comments as a “desperate attack” from a party “behind in the polls”.
Speaking at a business in the north-west of England later, Sir Keir, 62, will accuse the Reform leader of pledging unfunded tax cuts which, he will warn, could spark an economic meltdown.
“In opposition we said Liz Truss would crash the economy and leave you to pick up the bill,” he is expected to say. “We were right. And we were elected to fix that mess.
“Now in government, we are once again fighting the same fantasy – this time from Nigel Farage.
“Farage is making the exact same bet Liz Truss did. That you can spend tens of billions on tax cuts without a proper way of paying for it. And just like Truss, he is using your family finances, your mortgage, your bills as a gambling chip on his mad experiment. The result will be the same.”
Thursday’s speech is further evidence that right now the prime minister sees Farage as his principal political adversary.
On Tuesday, Farage pledged more generous benefits for pensioners and parents – but it was a commitment to raising the threshold at which someone starts to pay income tax from £12,570 to £20,000 that had some economists questioning whether his sums added up.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the policy could cost between £50bn and £80bn a year – and that Reform had not spelled out how they would raise the cash.
“Of course they don’t have to do that yet – we’re not at a general election,” said IFS economist Stuart Adam. “But at some point, if they’re going to be a party of government, they would have to make those numbers add up.”
In Farage’s speech, the former Ukip leader, 61, said the Conservatives had become an “irrelevance”, adding: “They’ve had a good 200 years.”
The local elections saw Reform make big gains at the expense of both Labour and the Conservatives – winning one by-election and two mayoral races, as well as gaining 677 new councillors.
The party won most votes, most seats and overall control of most councils.
But, as politics professor Sir John Curtice highlighted, the party’s share of the votes across all councils where elections took place was no more than 31% – so despite doing well, it secured far from a majority of those voting.
A Reform spokesman said: “We will take no economic lectures from Keir Starmer.
“Labour’s manifesto promised £10bn per year of increased spending.
“Their first budget raised spending by £70bn and they have added another £30bn since then for Chagos.”
The prime minister faces pressure from his own MPs on government spending decisions, including cuts to disability benefits.
Farage also said he would scrap the two-child benefit limit, which some Labour MPs also want to see abolished. The cap prevents most families from claiming means-tested benefits for any third or additional children born after April 2017.
