Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (Image: Getty)
Nigel Farage will pledge to reinstate winter fuel payments in a major speech today. The Reform UK leader will also promise to scrap the two-child benefit cap if his insurgent party takes power in the press conference.
The move is an attempt to outflank Labour with its traditional working class supporters, according to Reform sources. Sir Keir Starmer last week revealed he would look again at the axing of winter fuel payments for most pensioners following an ongoing backlash.
The Prime Minister is also under pressure from Labour backbenchers to ditch the two-child benefit cap, which restricts the benefits parents can claim to no more than two children.
It comes as Reform is riding high in opinion polls following its victories in the local elections.
Labour launches attack on Farage ahead of speech
Labour branded Nigel Farage a “private-educated stockbroker and career politician” in an attack ahead of his speech.
Ellie Reeves, chairwoman of the Labour Party, said: “Nigel Farage, a private-educated stockbroker and career politician, has only ever cared about his own self-interest and personal ambition, never about what is good for working people in this country.
“Farage wants to abolish the NHS, praised Liz Truss’s disastrous minibudget, opposed Labour’s landmark employment reforms and said Jaguar Land Rover, a huge employer, deserves to go bust.
“His Reform manifesto included billions of pounds worth of unfunded spending pledges but did not commit to the triple lock. Farage must urgently clarify whether he will cut the state pension to pay for his reckless tax cuts.
“Keir Starmer’s Labour government is delivering real improvement to working people’s lives through our ‘plan for change’ that has seen NHS waiting lists fall, wages rising faster than prices, and four interest rate cuts in a year, turbocharged by a trio of trade deals that are good for jobs, bills and borders.”
It comes ahead of Mr Farage accusing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of being “one of the most unpatriotic prime ministers in our history”.
He will add: “Starmer … is the most disconnected prime minister. He doesn’t believe in our country and voters are starting to see this with each day that passes.
“Labour said they were the party of change, but the change they have delivered has made people poorer, our streets more dangerous and British sovereignty weaker. He and his government are so hopelessly out of touch with working people. They U-turn on everything as they do not believe in anything.
“In ten months, his Labour government has let down countless individual communities. Pensioners, farmers, businesses, fishermen. They will not forget what Labour has done and they will vote for Reform.”
Farage: Current benefits system is ‘perverse’
The Reform UK, outlining his plans to encourage more people ot have bigger families, will declare: “We need to encourage people to have families and ensure they feel financially able to have them.
“The collapsing birth rate in the UK, now well below the rates needed, is an existential crisis for our country. The Tories and Labour have sought to solve it with open borders.
“A Reform government will cut net immigration to zero and do everything in its power to encourage British people who are able and want kids to have them.
“Scrapping the two-child [benefit] cap is just the start. We will, as soon as finances allow, introduce a UK 25 per cent transferable marriage tax allowance.”
Another blow to Labour?
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage will also pledge to scrap the two-child benefits cap.
Mr Farage has said he will commit to ending the two-child cap, which was introduced by the Conservatives in 2017 to cut the benefits bill.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is facing a mounting backlash from his own MPs over the cap.
What will Mr Farage announce today
The Reform UK leader will today make a series of pledges linked to “family”, including a proposal to give tax breaks to married couples to encourage people to have bigger families.
Mr Farage’s plans will see one spouse exempted from paying tax on the first £25,000 of their income, the Daily Mail reported.
The other would enjoy a tax-free income of £20,000, the level at which the party has promised to raise the threshold for the basic rate.
Workers currently pay the 20 per cent rate of income tax on everything between £12,570 and £50,270.
