All of Reform UK’s general election manifesto pledges so far

Reform UK has stated it plans to contest every seat in England, Wales and Scotland at the general election amid fears their presence could split the Conservative vote.

On Tuesday, the party’s honorary president Nigel Farage used a speech on Monday to claim that the Tories had “destroyed” themselves, while also suggesting that Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer are “not all that far apart” politically and are both “social democrats”.

He also claimed that Reform UK had a six-year plan to have a serious presence in future general elections, adding: “I hope and pray we get a cohort of MPs in Westminster so we can be the opposition.”

As the party tries to persuade voters to give them seats in the Commons, here are the party’s key pledges:

Immigration

Freezing non-essential immigration – Reform UK wants to freeze all immigration with exceptions for those with “essential skills our economy needs such as doctors, nurses and successful business people, earning above the average salary”.

Six-point plan to stop the boats – The party would recognise the small boats crisis as a national security threat, leave the (European Convention on Human Rights), end all resettlement of illegal migrants in the UK, set up off-shore processing for arrivals, establish a new Department of Immigration, and send small boat arrivals back to France.

Immediate deportation for foreign criminals – Those in UK prisons would be immediately deported when their sentence ends, while citizenship would be withdrawn “from immigrants who commit significant crime”.

Restricting dependents on student visas – The party would heavily restrict the dependants those on student visas can bring, while also ensuring that only international students with essential skills can remain in the UK when their study ends.

Big penalties for companies employing illegal workers – Reform UK has claimed that “local wages have been slashed because of cheap, undocumented, illegal labour that undermines British workers” and would impose significant penalties on companies and directors that employ them.

Tax, spending and economy

Save £5 in every £100 – Every manager across government would be required to find 5 per cent savings “without touching frontline services” by eliminating wasteful spending, cutting bureaucracy and negotiating better procurement contracts.

Scrapping unnecessary quangos – Saving money by scrapping some of the 600 government departments and centrally-funded bodies known as “quangos”. Reform UK claims the “public wouldn’t notice if many dozens were scrapped”.

Ending Bank of England interest payments on QE reserves – The party says up to £40bn could be saved by cutting the amount of money the Bank of England pays in interest to commercial banks.

Scrapping “unnecessary regulations” – The party claims that “government red tape and nanny state regulations are estimated to have cost the UK economy £143bn since 2015”, and would see much of these rules scrapped.

Raising income tax threshold to £20,000 – Reform UK says this would remove 7 million people from paying income tax and save all workers around £1,500 a year. The party would also raise the higher income tax rate threshold to £70,000.

Reforming inheritance tax – Reform UK would like to see no inheritance tax on estates worth under £2m, with those over this threshold taxed at 20 per cent. The current rate is 40 per cent on all estate values over £500,000.

Cutting corporation tax – The party wants the minimum profit threshold raised to £100,000, and a reduction of the main corporation tax rate from 25 per cent to 20 per cent, then to 15 per cent after five years.

Reforming the tax system – The party said: “Major simplification is needed. At over 21,000 pages, the UK’s tax code is a burden. Hong Kong’s tax code is under 500 pages.”

Defence and foreign

Halving foreign aid – Reform UK says cutting foreign aid contributions by half would save £6bn from the current £12.8bn budget, with payments stopped to countries including China or India.

Scrapping the Windsor Framework – The party said the deal is “worse than the original Northern Ireland Protocol”. They would also renegotiate EU trade agreements.

Boosting defence spending – Reform UK wants defence spending to increase to 2.5 per cent of GDP within three years, then 3 per cent within six years. They would also reform defence procurement to find savings and offer tax incentives to boost the UK defence industry.

Support for veterans – The party would oversee a pay review for the Armed Forces, bring in laws to protect them from legal challenges and establish a new Department for veterans. Veterans would also get priority for Civil Service jobs, and access to public services, plus improved accommodation.

Health and social care

Slash tax for NHS workers – Reform UK would have all frontline NHS and social care staff pay zero basic rate tax for three years, which they claim would “frontline NHS and social care staff to pay zero basic rate tax for three years”.

Increased use of private sector – To cut waiting lists, the party would use capacity in not-for-profit health providers such as Nuffield Health and Marie Curie.

Tax relief for private healthcare – To incentivise people to take out private healthcare, Reform UK would offer a 20 per cent tax relief to help free up pressure on the NHS.

Ending training caps for UK medical students – Alongside ended caps on the number of medical students, Reform UK would also write off student debt after 10 years of service in the NHS for frontline workers.

Private healthcare voucher scheme – Patients would be offered a voucher for private treatment if they can’t see a GP within three days, see a consultant within three weeks or book surgery within nine weeks.

Launch an inquiry into vaccine harms – On this pledge, the party has said: “Excess deaths are nearly as high as they were during the Covid pandemic. Young people are overrepresented.”

Energy

Scrapping VAT on energy bills – Removing VAT on energy bills to save households around £500 a year.

Scrapping net zero targets – The party claims that net zero targets are estimated to cost the UK economy £2tn, and that ditching the pledges would save the public sector £20bn per year for the next 25 years.

Scrapping renewable energy subsidies – On this pledge, the party said: “Renewables are not cheaper. Our bills have increased dramatically in line with the huge increase in renewables capacity over the last 15 years.”

Fast-tracking North Sea licences – Reform UK claims that “the value of shale gas is potentially hundreds of billions over 30 years to the taxpayer” and would seek to boost the number of oil and gas licences granted in the North Sea.

Boosting clean energy – The party said it would “fast-track clean nuclear energy with new small modular reactors, built in Britain”.

Housing

Cutting stamp duty – The party says it would “boost economic activity and housebuilding” if stamp duty was cut to 0 per cent on all homes worth under £750,000. The rate would be 2 per cent on on homes up to £1m and 4 per cent for those over £1.5m.

Reforming the planning system – The party wants to fast-track new housing on brownfield sites and infrastructure projects to boost businesses, especially in the North and in coastal regeneration areas.

Reforming social housing – Reform UK wants local people prioritised for social housing, adding: “Foreign nationals must go to the back of the queue. Not the front.”

Policing, crime and justice

Boosting police numbers – Raising the proportion of police officers from 235 to 300 per 100,000 people – the equivalent of 40,000 new front-line officers. The party would also use technology to cut paperwork and get more police on patrols.

Increasing criminal justice budget – The party claims the justice budget has barely changed over the past decade, and would raise it from £10bn to £12bn “to ensure more high-calibre staff to cut delays”. The budget for the National Crime Agency and The National Drugs Intelligence Unit would also be increased to tackle organised crime, while Police and Crime Commissioners would be scrapped.

Zero-tolerance policing – Modelled on the regime used to slash crime in New York, Reform UK would see prison sentences for all violent crimes and possessing a knife, while drug dealing would get mandatory life imprisonment. There would also be mandatory life sentences for second violent or serious offences, and “High-Intensity Training Camps” for young offenders.

Ending “woke” policing – The party would scrap all diversity, equality and inclusion roles and regulations to stop two-tier policing, reform the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) and reform the current hate crime definition.

Expanding prisons – Reform UK would like to build 10,000 new detention places in state prisons and would “commission disused military bases if needed”.

Education

Banning “transgender ideology” in schools – On this pledge, the party said: “There are two sexes and two genders. It is a dangerous safeguarding issue to confuse children by suggesting otherwise.” They added that parents should be informed of their “children’s life decisions” and that all schools should have single-sex facilities.

Banning critical race theory in schools – On this pledge, the party said: “It is unacceptable to divide children on grounds of race and teach them to be ashamed of their country.”

Tax relief for private schools – Reform UK are against imposing VAT on private school fees, and instead would encourage parents to choose them by offering a 20 per cent tax relief.

Scrapping interest on student loans – The party would extend the repayment periods to 45 years and remove interest on student loans, as well as ending “rip off” degrees and capping undergrad numbers. They would also require universities to provide two-year courses to reduce student debt.

Cutting funding to universities that “undermine free speech” – On this pledge, the party said: “The government’s Free Speech Act is toothless. Allowing political bias or cancel culture must face heavy financial penalties.”

Welfare 

Two-strike rule for benefits – The party would require that job seekers find employment within four months or accept a job after two offers, or have their benefits withdrawn.

Back to work drive – Reform UK would end remote assessments for personal independence payments (PIP) and reform benefits to get millions of 16- to 34-year-olds into work.

Reforming child benefit – They would “frontload” the child benefit children four children under four to allow more mothers to stay at home, and would additionally reform the tax system to allow married couples to share their tax allowance.

Social care inquiry – Reform UK would oversee a Royal Commission inquiry into how to improve the social care system, adding: “additional funding will be required when a national plan is agreed”.

Other pledges

Scrapping HS2 and Ulez – The party has said it would “save £25bn by scrapping the rest of this bloated vanity project” and ban all low-emission zones and low traffic neighbourhoods.

Boosting farming and fisheries – This would be done by increasing the farming budget to £3bn, scrapping climate-related farming subsidies and protecting country sports. Reform UK would also end automatic EU access to UK waters and ban foreign supertrawlers.

Constitutional reform – The party said it would “replace the crony-filled House of Lords with a much smaller second chamber” alongside wider Civil Service reform. It would also review postal voting to prevent electoral fraud and bring in proportional representation for the House of Commons.