Nigel Farage vows to scrap two-child benefit cap

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Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said his party would scrap the two-child benefit cap and create tax incentives for married couples, as he attacked the government for losing touch with working people.

“Even without Reform, this government is off to the worst start of any government since [Anthony] Eden and the Suez crisis of 1956. They are collapsing in terms of support,” he said on Tuesday.

Farage’s comments come after Reform made huge gains across England at local elections earlier this month, including securing the parliamentary seat of Runcorn and Helsby, two mayoralties and more than 600 council seats.

Sir Keir Starmer is now eyeing Reform as Labour’s principle opposition and has tacked right on a number of policy areas, including immigration, welfare and transgender rights, in an effort to fend off the threat posed by the rightwing populist party.

Farage has meanwhile pivoted to the left on several economic issues as he seeks to capitalise on support in Labour’s heartlands across the north of England, Wales and Scotland, where voters have historically been more left wing economically.

Shedding some of his more Thatcherite positions, Farage has called for the nationalisation of British Steel and key utilities such as Thames Water, and voiced some support for unions. 

In a speech in central London on Tuesday, Farage said lifting the two-child benefit cap, a Conservative policy that backbench Labour MPs have long opposed, was “the right thing to do”.

“That is not because we support the benefits culture, but because we believe that for lower paid workers, this actually makes having children just a little bit easier . . . It helps them,” he said.

Farage reiterated that his party would reinstate winter fuel payments for all pensioners, referring to Starmer’s decision to remove the payments from about 10mn pensioners last summer — a policy Farage has attacked since it was introduced.

Starmer has sought to backtrack on these two policies in recent days, indicating to allies that he is eager to scrap the two-child benefit cap in the Autumn Budget. He told MPs last week he was considering proposals to increase the threshold at which pensioners were no longer eligible for winter fuel payments.

Arguing in favour of creating a transferable tax allowance for married people of up to £5,000, Farage said: “I am hardly standing in front of you as a religious priest and moralising.” 

“But what is true is that where people who are married and stay together for the longest period of time, the children that grow up in those environments have the best chance of success in life.”

He added that if one parent wanted to spend more time at home in the first 18 months of a child’s life, their tax-free allowance could be transferred to their spouse. “It would give people more options and greater flexibility,” he said.

Farage also restated a Reform policy of increasing the income tax free threshold from £12,500 to £20,000 for all adults, to provide an incentive to work — a policy that some economists believe would cost at least £40bn a year.

To pay for the policies, Farage said he would cut spending on governmental arms-length bodies, known as quangos, by 5 per cent, saving an average of £13bn per year.

He also said he would scrap all net zero and diversity, equity and inclusion spending, which he claimed totalled £45bn and £7bn respectively each year.

Farage added that he would close all hotels and homes of multiple occupancy housing asylum seekers across Britain, which he said would save at least £4bn a year.