Key figures in Reform UK
Education and childcare
- Scrap student loan interest
- Ban teaching gender ideology and critical race theory
- Introduce political bias or cancel culture fines for universities
- Tax relief for private schools
- Introduction of Home Economics
- Double pupil referral units
Reform would require universities to provide two-year courses to reduce student debt and allow graduates to enter the workforce earlier. Interest on student loans would be scrapped to stop students being “ripped off” – the party declares that many courses “are simply not good enough”.
It would use its first 100 days in power to clamp down on “woke ideology” in schools and universities, banning the teaching of contested gender ideology and critical race theory in schools, with children instead taught “there are two sexes and two genders”.
Any universities that “allow political bias or cancel culture” would face “heavy” fines.
Private schools would benefit from tax relief of 20 per cent in an attempt to take pressure off state schools and “improve education for all”. The party has also pledged to fight Labour’s planned tax raid on private education as Mr Tice vowed to challenge the “discriminatory” policy in the courts.
Reform would place a greater emphasis on life skills by adding Home Economics and classes about the risks of social media to the national curriculum. It would seek to increase technical courses and apprenticeships, particularly in IT, construction and engineering.
The number of pupil referral units for violent or disruptive students would double “so schools can function safely” while supporting vulnerable children. Smartphones and the use of social media would be banned in schools for pupils under the age of 16.
Defence
- Invest in housing for Armed Forces
- Upgrade Office for Veterans’ Affairs
- Free education for troops and veterans
- Basic pay increase
- New Armed Forces Justice Bill
- Increase defence spending
Reform would overhaul the military procurement process as one of its defence priorities while also promising to invest in “properly equipping and housing” Armed Forces personnel.
It would upgrade the existing Office for Veterans’ Affairs to a fully-fledged Department for Veterans’ Affairs, which would receive £1 billion funding a year.
Troops and veterans alike would be entitled to free education during and after their service, with Reform saying this is “vital to ensure a successful return to civilian life”.
Basic pay would be increased across the forces, with the pre-manifesto adding: “It is unacceptable that a private soldier is paid less than an Amazon worker.”
A new Armed Forces Justice Bill would protect serving military personnel in the UK and abroad from civil law and human rights lawyers, while also creating an armed forces watchdog to fast-track complaints about military accommodation and welfare for veterans.
Defence spending, which is currently on track to reach 2.25 per cent next year, would increase to 2.5 per cent by 2027 before rising to 3 per cent by 2030.
Pensions and welfare
- Back-to-work push
- Withdraw jobseekers’ benefits
- Face-to-face PIP assessments
- Remodel savings and pension system
Mr Farage’s party wants to get two million people back into work and would launch a wide-ranging suppression on welfare in order to achieve this, with a back-to-work push that places particular emphasis on those aged 16 to 34.
Benefits for jobseekers would be withdrawn either after four months of unemployment or the rejection of two job offers.
Assessment for personal independence payment (PIP) would have to take place face-to-face to build relationships and coach people back into work, while medical assessments for those on benefits would be required to take place independently.
A royal commission to tackle social care is among “critical reforms” to the social care system the party is seeking to deliver in the first 100 days after the election. A loophole that it says allows larger care home providers to avoid tax through offshore structures would be closed.
Reform has said it wants to improve the savings and pension system in the long term to make it “much better and cheaper, from a much younger age”, citing Australia as a model.
Policing and crime
- Increase police numbers
- Enforcement of ‘zero tolerance’ policing
- Review of police leadership teams
- Abolish all diversity, equality and inclusion roles and regulations
- Automatic life imprisonment for violent offenders
- High intensity training camps for young offenders
Reform has accused the Government of being “soft on crime” and paints a picture of “badly failing” police leadership, citing a collapse in charging rates to around five per cent.
Its immediate law and order objectives include the start of an increase in police numbers that would see 40,000 new officers over the course of a five-year parliament.
“Zero tolerance” policing, which the party said has been a success in New York, would mean offenders received jail sentences for all violent crimes and the possession of a knife. A new offence of substantial possession of drugs would lead to heavy fines, while the use of stop-and-search would be vastly expanded, with Reform hailing it as a “proven deterrent to knife crime”.
Police leadership teams would be reviewed and where necessary replaced, with a “strong preference” for military veterans.
All diversity, equality and inclusion roles and regulations would be abolished in an attempt to stop what Mr Tice referred to in his spring conference speech as “two-tier policing”.
Police and Crime Commissioners would either be scrapped or reformed – “either they get the power to make a real change or they should go” – and degree-standard entry would be replaced with entrance exams, while officers would have to complete two years of probation.
Violent offenders would receive automatic life imprisonment as part of an urgent review.
The definition of hate crime would be changed in order to require “proper evidence”, pro-Palestinian marches banned using existing powers, 10,000 new detention places created and the budget of the National Crime Agency increased to tackle foreign gang crime.
Young offenders, meanwhile, would face high intensity training camps that would reopen to offer “basic education, training and values… [This model] is needed more than ever.”
Reform UK also wants to cut down on cash-only barbershops, which the party claims are a front for money laundering after experts and senior industry figures warned some of the traders engage in illegal activity and undercut honest traders in communities.
The Reform manifesto states that “foreign gang crime” accounts for most organised crime in the UK at a cost of £37 billion per year, adding: “This includes drugs, people trafficking and money laundering through barbershops, car washes and nail bars.”
Migration
- Migrant tax
- Leave European Convention on Human Rights
- Freeze ‘non-essential’ migration
- Abolish Home Office
- Reduce student visas
Reform UK announced their first major policy of the election campaign on May 30 to tackle immigration and “take control back control of our borders”.
The party have pledged to introduce a migrant tax forcing employers to pay an increased National Insurance rate of 20 per cent for every foreign employee, compared with the current 13.8 figure for domestic staff.
Writing in The Telegraph, Mr Tice said the tax would incentivise companies to recruit British workers over cheaper foreign labour and provide the “antidote” to 14 years of Tory failures to curb net migration.
The party has already discussed ending illegal immigration and vastly reducing legal migration by leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and introducing a “one in, one out” migration quota.
An analysis published by the More in Common think tank in February found that the main reason given by voters planning to back Reform at the next election is to control immigration.
All “non-essential” migration would be frozen within weeks. Illegal migration would be deemed a national security threat, migrants would be picked up out of boats and taken back to France and the Home Office abolished and replaced by a new Department for Immigration.
Foreign criminals would be deported immediately after their prison sentence ended and citizenship withdrawn from immigrants who commit “significant” crimes.
A proposed clamp down on student visas and their dependents is designed to mean that only students with essential skills can remain in the UK as soon as their studies end.
Under Reform’s plans, “significant” penalties would be levelled on companies that make use of undocumented and illegal labour.
Reform said in its pre-manifesto: “Uncontrolled mass immigration has pushed Britain to breaking points… Labour and the Tories will never control our borders. The British people have been lied to, ignored and betrayed.”
