TORIES SLAM REFORM FOR UNREALISTIC SPENDING PLANS AND ‘FANTASY ECONOMICS’

SHADOW Chancellor Mel Stride has accused Reform UK of committing to unrealistic spending plans and indulging in “fantasy economics.”

Stride told GB News: “Reform, of course, have done well out of the fact that this is a deeply unpopular Labour Government.

“They’ve done well out of the fact that we have had a crushing general election defeat, but they are now coming under more scrutiny, and Nigel Farage today, I believe, is going to stand up and say that they would reinstate the winter fuel payments, that they would also abolish the two child limit, meaning that if you have more than two children on benefits, the taxpayer will pay benefits towards the cost of those decisions.

“And these are big spending commitments. That’s about £5 billion worth of spending right there, on top of manifesto commitments, they came forward with.”

He added: “We were clear in our manifesto at the last election that we would not be means testing the winter fuel payments. There’s no movement in position from us at all.

“But the broader point I’m making, I think this is really important, is that in their manifesto, Reform said they take everybody earning up to £20,000 out of income tax altogether. That is £60 billion worth of commitment. There are £140 billion of giveaways and tax cuts in that manifesto.

“None of it is thought through. None of it has sat down and done the hard yards of working out how that’s all going to be paid for. It is all fantasy economics, and it’s really dangerous for our economy. Reform are now going to come under the kind of scrutiny that they have not faced so far. And I think it’s really important that that happens.

“What you’re seeing is Nigel Farage trying to be all things to all people, with lots of announcements and no thinking behind how he’s going to pay for any of these things.

“People say, ‘oh, well, Farage is a creature of the right of the political spectrum’. He’s actually a big government person. He’s somebody that wants to go out and spend vast sums of money, somebody who wants, for example, to get rid of the two-child benefit cap at a cost of £3.5 billion without any thought about how all this is going to be paid for.

“He will play whatever tune he thinks appeals to the people he’s playing the tune too, but that’s not serious grown-up politics.

“We’ve got four years to this election, and he’s going to have to try and keep this juggling act going for another four years, and it’s our job to now hold him to account and give him the kind of scrutiny that he has enjoyed not having.”

On Reform’s policy of tax cuts, Stride said: “We need tax cuts. We need to get the tax cut burden down. What I don’t like are things that are not thought through, that end up costing people in their living standards up and down the country, and damaging the economy.

“What the government has done is to mismanage the economy, destroy a lot of growth and put us in a very parlous position when it comes to the public finances with rising tax rates. That’s not right.

“What Nigel Farage is doing is just simply running around saying, well, everybody can have whatever they want, including lots of tax cuts. Well, that’s fine, if he can tell us exactly, rigorously how he’s going to pay for them. Otherwise, if he gets into government with that approach, the markets are going to run a mile.”