Reform UK would impose ‘biggest cuts to benefits bill ever seen in history of this country’, Farage says – UK politics live
Reform UK would impose ‘biggest cuts to benefits bill ever seen in history of this country’, Farage says
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, is speaking at his press conference now.
He confirms the party are keeping the pensions triple lock. (See 8.51am.)
He says that, when he previously said the jury was out on this, he genuinely meant that he was undecided.
He says he decided the party should keep it because he thinks there are pensioners who need it. And he backs the principle that people who pay into the welfare system should get something out of it.
But, he says, there is another reason. He says within the next two week Reform UK will announce “the biggest cuts to the benefits bill ever seen in the history of this country”.
That means Reform UK would be able to afford to keep the pensions triple lock “many, many times over”, he says.
Key events
Jenrick says Reform UK considering ending final salary pension scheme for public sector workers
Jenrick confirms that Reform UK would cut the benefits bill. He gives a series of example of areas were he things government spending could be cut back drastically.
And he announced that Reform UK is launching a review of the case for blocking new entrants to defined benefit (final salary) pensions schemes in the public sector.
He says these pensions were removed in the private sector decades ago.
Jenrick confirms Reform UK would keep pensions triple lock
Robert Jenrick, Reform UK’s Treasury spokesperson, is speaking now.
He says pensioners who have paid into the system for 30 or 40 years are genuinely worried about the future.
He says:
[Pensioners] look at the debt that successive governments have racked up. They look at Labour borrowing left, right and centre, just like the Conservatives did, and they know, they fear, something’s got to give.
They fear this government may be soon led by Angela Rayner or Ed Miliband, backed up by Zack Polanski [and it] will pull the rug from under them, will erode, chip away, at the pension that they’ve worked and paid into for their whole life. And they’re right to be worried.
Under reform it will be different. We will protect pensioners. Today I can announce that a Reform UK government will keep the triple lock for state pensions.
Under Reform and Nigel Farage, your pension will always rise each year with either inflation, average earnings or by 2.5%, whichever of those three figures is the highest.
Reform UK would impose ‘biggest cuts to benefits bill ever seen in history of this country’, Farage says
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, is speaking at his press conference now.
He confirms the party are keeping the pensions triple lock. (See 8.51am.)
He says that, when he previously said the jury was out on this, he genuinely meant that he was undecided.
He says he decided the party should keep it because he thinks there are pensioners who need it. And he backs the principle that people who pay into the welfare system should get something out of it.
But, he says, there is another reason. He says within the next two week Reform UK will announce “the biggest cuts to the benefits bill ever seen in the history of this country”.
That means Reform UK would be able to afford to keep the pensions triple lock “many, many times over”, he says.
Grenfell United survivors and bereaved families group condemns Reform UK spokesperson’s comment as ‘deeply dehumanising’
Grenfell United, which represents survivors and bereaved families from the Grenfell Tower tragedy, has issued this statement about the comments from Reform UK’s housing spokesperson about the fire.
Here is the passage from Ed Davey’s speech this morning setting out details of what the Lib Dems are calling their “emergency transport package”. (See 10.05am.)
He said:
That’s what we’re calling for today. Action. Now. To tackle the costs of Trump’s war and keep Britain moving.
And that means cutting the cost of trains and buses too. So we’re calling for a 10% cut in rail fares, saving a typical commuter in Winchester more than £50 a month.
And we’re calling for the cap on bus fares to be cut too. It used to be £2, before Labour put it up to 3. Our plan would cut it not just back to £2 but down to £1. £1 a bus ticket, wherever you need to go.
And on electric vehicles, our plan would make them cheaper to run. Starting by cutting VAT on public charging, coupled with a review to bring down unfair network costs that drivers ultimately have to pay too.
And then there’s petrol and diesel.
Especially important today, as people set off to join family and friends for the Easter weekend. 21 million trips – the busiest weekend on British roads in years.
Many families are sitting in queues at petrol stations right now, waiting to get their holidays started.
Paying more than they should to fill up for the journey …
We say the chancellor needs to go much further to keep Britain moving.
Cut fuel duty now – not by 1p, not by 5p, but by 10p per litre.
Cutting the cost of filling up a 55-litre tank by £6.60.
Giving families the help they desperately need, today.
Davey claimed that the government would be able to fund this with the extra revenue coming in as a result of higher fuel prices. But yesterday Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, said that the claim she was getting a windfall as a result of higher energy prices was “for the birds”.
Politics Live Q&A
This afternoon I will be setting aside an hour or two specifically to answer questions from readers. People post questions BTL (below the line) anyway, but I don’t always have time to address them and so today we are trying a new approach, prioritising the Q&A. It means comments will be open for a bit longer than usual too.
Please post questions BTL, on any subject related to British politics. I will try to answer as many as I can, but I will be focusing on a) the ones that seem most interesting, and b) the ones where I may be able to give a decent answer.
If you include Q&A in the questions BTL, that will make it easier for us to see them, but don’t worry if you leave those out.
I will be answering the questions from about 3pm until about 5pm. Until then, I will be blogging as usual.
Q: Do you think Starmer should use stronger language to criticise Donald Trump?
Davey says he listened to Trump’s address last night, and agrees with him on one point; Trump is not smart enough to end this war.
He says Starmer has taken some good first steps in trying to mobilise an international coalition to get the strait of Hormuz open.
But he says it is Trump who has put the special relationship “on life support”.
Q: What is your reaction to Keir Starmer yesterday proposing closer links with the EU?
Davey says he thinks Starmer has been “far too timid” on Europe, and should be proposing closer links.
Q: Do you agree with the Tories about wanting more oil and gas drilling from the North Sea?
Davey says Kemi Badenoch claims she can get an extra £2.5bn in tax revenue by allowing more exploration in the North Sea. He says she is “just lying”. He says everyone knows that that is not realistic.
He says, when he was energy secretary, he approved many North Sea licences. He says he thinks the proposal for the Jackdaw field should be allowed to go ahead.
Q: Do you want people to drive less?
Davey says the plan to cut the cap on bus fares is designed to get more people using public transport.
But he says lots of people have not other choice but to use a car.
Q: Should the king and the queen meet Epstein survivors when they go to the US?
Davey praises the king and the queen for the statement they issue a while back about the Epstein victims.
He says it is well known that he does not think the state visit should go ahead anyway.
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey calls for 10p per litre cut in fuel duty to counter price rises caused by Iran war
Ed Davey is speaking now.
He starts by referring to the rise in petrol prices as the “Trump/Farage/Badenoch tax”, because Donald Trump started the Iran war and Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch “cheered” the war.
He says people need help now.
On petrol, he says the Tories and Reform UK are calling for the fuel duty increase to be abandoned. But that rise is not going to take effect until September, and so that would not help now, he says.
He says the Lib Dems are calling for fuel duty to be cut now by 10p a litre. This would save drivers £6.60 every time they fill up an average tank, he says.
He says the Lib Dems are also proposing measures to cut the costs of other forms of travel.
Rail fares should be cut by 10%, he says.
And he says the Lib Dems would reduce the cap on bus fares from £3 to £1.
He claims the Lib Dems have a plan to fund all these measures.
UPDATE: See 10.49am for more details.
SNP’s John Swinney calls for parliament to be recalled so MPs can debate energy crisis
Ed Davey must be going soft. Normally the Lib Dems are the first to call the recall of parliament. But, judging by the Lib Dem press releaese (see 9.50am), he seems to be happy to wait until the Commons returns, as scheduled, on Monday 13 April.
Instead, it is the SNP leader and Scottish first minister John Swinney who is calling for parliament to be recalled to debate the energy crisis. In a statement he says:
We are facing an unprecedented energy crisis with motorists being hammered at the petrol pumps and households facing unaffordable energy bills while the UK fovernment is doing nothing.
Labour are sleepwalking into a crisis and it will be ordinary people who pay the price.
Our European neighbours like Ireland and Spain have already taken action to protect their people from the crisis and have stepped up with billions of pounds in support. Yet the prime minister stands by like a rabbit in the headlights doing nothing.
I am calling today for the House of Commons to be recalled from its recess, so that the UK government can be forced into taking action to support people.
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, is about to start his press conference.
According to the party, he will “set out a package of support that he says the chancellor should include in an emergency statement to parliament as soon as it returns after Easter”.
Tories commit to fully axing carbon tax
The Conservatives have pledged to fully axe the carbon tax if they get back into power, the Press Association reports. PA says:
The party had already proposed removing the tax as it applies to electricity generation, but now say they would go further and fully scrap the carbon tax regime, the cost of which they say is burdening British industry.
But Labour said such a move would be “wrong” and “hammer” industry.
The Conservatives said they would get rid of the UK emissions trading scheme (ETS), which was brought in under the Tories in 2021 and sets a carbon limit on certain sectors, meaning they must minimise emissions or fund measures to offset them.
It currently applies to the heavy industry, power and aviation sectors and is set to extend to the maritime industry from July.
Keir Starmer has committed to linking the UK emissions trading scheme with the EU’s as part of his government’s reset with the bloc.
The Tories have said they would also scrap the carbon price support, a levy paid by fossil fuel electricity producers, as well as the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) due to come into force in January next year.
The CBAM is a carbon levy on imported goods that aims to stop UK firms being undercut by overseas manufacturers and also goes back to Tory government policy from 2023.
Such a mechanism could give industry a boost but that requires a UK carbon price, according to the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) thinktank.
Jess Ralston, head of energy at the ECIU, said: “A well-designed, carbon border adjustment mechanism could help rejuvenate British industry, helping make it more competitive with other cheaper countries, and many businesses have been calling for one for years.
“But it’s predicated on a UK carbon price and, if we don’t have that, revenues that would have been going to Treasury will instead by transferred into EU coffers when British industry exports to the EU, our largest trading partner.
“A significant amount of UK steel is exported to the EU each year. Market-based policies like carbon pricing and CBAM have long been advocated for by thinktanks and politicians on the right of politics, so there’s a big question around what you do instead to reach net zero emissions, given that is essential to stopping climate change.”
As Ben Quinn reports in his story on the Simon Dudley controversy, the Grenfell Next of Kin group are demanding an apology. They say:
The death of our parents, partners, children, siblings grandparents and grandchildren in the most horrific circumstances was gross negligent manslaughter, NOT fate.
Dudley and Reform must apologise to the Grenfell Next of Kin families.
Here is Ben’s story.
Starmer tells Farage to sack Reform UK’s housing spokesperson over ‘shameful’ Grenfell Tower comment
Keir Starmer has also called for Reform UK’s housing spokesperson Simon Dudley to be sacked over his Grenfell Tower comment. (See 8.51am.) The PM (or his team) has posted this on social media.
Reform UK urged to sack housing spokesperson over ‘disgraceful’ Grenfell Tower comment
Good morning. One of the big policy decisions for all parties ahead of the next election is whether or not to keep the pensions triple lock. Most mainstream economists and welfare experts think it is overly generous (pensioners used to be significantly poorer than working-age people, but that is no longer the case), and ultimately unaffordable. But it is popular, and pensioners turn out to vote in elections in much higher numbers than younger people.
The Conservatives at one point suggested they might drop it, but Kemi Badenoch now defends the triple lock quite strongly. Labour has not said what its election plans are yet. Nigel Farage, the Reform UK, says he will take tough decisions to cut welfare spending, and he was thought to be sceptical about the triple lock. But Robert Jenrick, his Treasury spokesperson, is thought to be in favour, and at a press conference later they are expected to confirm Reform UK would keep it.
But they will end up taking questions about the party’s housing spokesperson, Simon Dudley, who is now facing calls to resign over a comment apparently making light of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. The Press Association has the story. PA says:
Reform UK is facing calls to sack its housing spokesman after he said the Grenfell Tower fire was a “tragedy” but that “everyone dies in the end”.
Simon Dudley, a former executive at Homes England and the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation, said the pendulum had “swung too far the wrong way” on regulation after the deadly blaze at the west London tower block in 2017.
The Grenfell Inquiry found that the 72 deaths were avoidable and had been preceded by “decades of failure” by governments and the building industry to act on the dangers of flammable materials on high-rise buildings.
Dudley was appointed as housing spokesman for Reform last month and the party said at the time he would lead an urgent review into “Britain’s building crisis” that would set out reforms to planning, housing delivery and national infrastructure.
In an interview with Inside Housing published yesterday, he said building safety regulations introduced after the Grenfell Tower fire were an example of “regulation which is not working”.
Dudley told the magazine the Grenfell fire was a “tragedy” but said he does not believe the regulatory regime is proportionate.
He went on to say: “Sadly, you know, everyone dies in the end. It’s just how you go, right?”
The Building Safety Regulator, which was set up after the fire and is responsible for regulating the safe design, construction and occupation of higher-risk buildings, has faced criticism for delays in its approval processes.
In June last year, the government announced reforms to tackle delays to building new high-rise homes, including a fast-track process and investment.
Dudley added: “Extracting Grenfell from the statistics, actually people dying in house fires is rare… many, many more people die on the roads driving cars, but we’re not making cars illegal, so why are we stopping houses being built?”
He argued that “You can’t stop tragic things happening. You can try to minimise excesses, but bad things do happen.”
The effect of poor regulation, he said, is that it stops houses being built.
“So the pendulum has just swung too far the wrong way,” he said.
Responding to the interview for Labour, Steve Reed, the housing secretary, said:
If Nigel Farage has an ounce of decency, he will sack his housing chief immediately.
These disgraceful comments about those who died in the Grenfell Tower fire are beyond the pale and it is completely untenable for Simon Dudley to continue in his position.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.45am: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, holds a press conference, where he will call for tax cuts as a response to rising energy prices caused by the Iran war.
10am: The Scottish Green party launch their Holyrood election campaign.
11am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, and Robert Jenrick, his Treasury spokesperson, hold a press conference.
Late morning: Kemi Badenoch is on a visit in Redcar and Sunderland.
Lunchtime: Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, hosts a virtual meeting of foreign ministers from the 35 countries interested exploring ways to get the strait of Hormuz open.
12.15pm: Russell Findlay, the Scottish Conservative leader, sets out plans to improve Scottish education.
3.30pm: Scottish political party leaders take part in an elections hustings.
Today we are also be trying something new; I will be spending an hour or two in the afternoon specifically answering reader questions. We would like you to post them BTL and I will be replying ATL, probably from about 3pm. I will post more on this shortly.
In the meantime, if you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.