LONDON, March 17 (Reuters) – Operation Restoring Justice to control borders. A Deportation Command. More oil, gas and nuclear energy. Patriotism in schools. Save the pubs.
Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK party is well ahead of the governing Labour Party and the opposition Conservatives in British opinion polls before local elections in May and a national vote due by 2029.
It has started to outline the policies it will stand on:
IMMIGRATION: DEPORT UP TO 600,000 ASYLUM-SEEKERS
Former Goldman Sachs banker Zia Yusuf is the policy chief for home affairs.
Reform has said it will launch a five-year emergency programme – “Operation Restoring Justice” – to identify, detain and deport illegal migrants in Britain and deter newcomers by showing unlawful arrival will be met by swift removal.
Secure Immigration Removal Centres will be created within 18 months to allow for up to 24,000 illegal migrants to be deported per month. Reform has said it could deport up to 600,000 asylum seekers, including women and children, in its first parliament.
The party says it will also leave the European Convention on Human Rights, which it says allows a “foreign court” in Strasbourg to prevent Britain from deporting people. It will also repeal the Human Rights Act 1998, which incorporates most ECHR rights into domestic law, and replace it with a British bill of rights, according to the plans.
Reform, which often describes illegal immigration as an “invasion”, says it will set up a new Deportation Command – similar to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The party has also said it will woo foreign investors with “a Britannia investor visa”, which would allow migrants to buy a 10-year residency permit for 250,000 pounds ($334,000) which would exempt them from UK tax on their overseas income.
ECONOMY: AXE 68,500 GOVERNMENT JOBS
Former Conservative minister Robert Jenrick is Reform’s economy policy chief.
Reform has said it plans to fix Britain with a new economic model underpinned by “strict fiscal rules” that would see the party bring rising debt under control by cutting wasteful spending. It says it will end benefits for foreign nationals, raise the immigration health surcharge and cap foreign aid.
Other spending cuts would come from cutting the number of government officials by 68,500 jobs, reducing welfare payments and lightening pension liabilities by moving new public-sector workers from defined-benefit to defined-contribution pensions.
Reform says it would respect the independence of the Bank of England while trying to get more business figures to sit on its interest rate-setting committees.
It would not make immediate tax cuts while running “a huge deficit” and would wait until the government had generated “the fiscal headroom necessary”. But the party says it would try to reduce taxes as soon as possible.
ENERGY: MAX OIL AND GAS, NO NET-ZERO
Former property developer Richard Tice is Reform’s policy lead on business, trade and energy.
A Reform government would also maximise oil and gas output and seek to rapidly scale up nuclear energy production, the party says. It would also scrap net-zero targets, including the zero-emission vehicle mandates.
On trade, Reform has said it will encourage the public sector to “focus on buying British”. It would prevent Chinese electric vehicles from dominating the sector by bringing in “tight quotas and significant tariffs”.
The party pledges to bin Labour’s 2025 Employment Rights Bill, which will offer rights from day one for sick pay and parental leave, and will restrict “fire and rehire” practices among other measures. Reform says the legislation is destroying jobs for young people by driving up business costs.
PUBS AND HOSPITALITY: CUT BEER DUTY, VAT
Reform says it will “save our pubs”.
It has outlined plans to reduce the VAT sales tax to 10% for the hospitality sector and scrap the employer National Insurance (social-security contributions) increase. It would also cut beer duty by 10% and gradually abolish business rates for all pubs.
SCHOOLS: PROMOTE PATRIOTISM AND DISCIPLINE
Former Conservative Home Secretary Suella Braverman is Reform’s policy chief on education.
Reform has pledged if elected to introduce a “patriotic, balanced curriculum” in schools to promote a love for Britain and combat “woke ideology”. It says it will also institute stricter discipline and ban social and gender transitioning for schoolchildren.
At universities, Braverman wants young people to stop wasting their lives “on Mickey Mouse courses” by putting in place a target for 50% of young people to go into the trades to close a shortage of nurses, builders and care workers. She has not specified which courses Reform deemed Mickey Mouse ones.
Also Reform’s policy lead for equalities, Braverman said the party would scrap diversity, equity and inclusion targets, which they say push a left-wing ideology and would axe the Equality Act of 2010, which strengthened anti-discrimination legislation.
The party would also get rid of the government position of equalities minister.
CRYPTO: MAKE BRITAIN A DIGITAL HUB
Reform says it would introduce a Cryptoassets and Digital Finance Bill to boost crypto adoption. This would include cutting capital gains tax for digital assets and creating a bitcoin reserve fund at the Bank of England. ($1 = 0.7438 pounds)
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Pravin Char)
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