Nigel Farage’s tax and spend plans were slammed as “fantasy economics” as Reform UK claimed it could save a massive £225 billion over five years by scrapping net zero projects.
The Reform UK leader was seeking to march onto Labour territory by making a series of pledges including axing the two-child benefit limit and restoring the winter fuel allowance for all pensioners.
Mr Farage’s party also wants the threshold for paying the basic rate of income tax to be dramatically increased from £12,570 to £20,000.
He is also proposing a transferable marriage tax allowance.
It would mean one spouse being exempt from paying tax on the first £25,000 of their income. The other would enjoy a tax-free income of £20,000.
But as Reform unveils new measures to woo voters it faced growing questions over how it would fund them.
Promising “big savings”, Mr Farage said: "If we win the next election, we will scrap net zero, something that is costing the Exchequer an extraordinary £40 billion plus every year.”
Earlier, new Reform MP Sarah Pochin, who won the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, told Times Radio: “We have calculated that if we scrap these net zero white elephants projects, that the Conservatives were just as committed to as this Labour government, that over five years we can save £225 billion.”
She also claimed savings could be made by axing “crazy, woke” diversity, equality and inclusion schemes.
Reform sources said the £225 billion figure of savings from ditching net zero projects was based on a report by the Institute for Government.
But the IfG stressed that the bulk of this green investment, highlighted in the paper called “Paying for Net Zero” was due to come from the private sector, not public funds.
Jill Rutter, senior fellow at the IfG, told The Standard: “Cancelling private investment does not save the Government money.”
Reform also appeared to have added up the net zero costs in the IfG analysis but not to have taken into account the tens of billions of pounds of savings from going green highlighted in it.
Stuart Adam, a senior economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, stressed that Reform’s income tax plan could cost between £50 billion to £80 billion, adding it would be “very difficult” to find savings to fund it without cutting public services.
Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride said: “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.
“It is all fantasy economics, and it’s really dangerous for our economy.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey added: “Nigel Farage praised the disastrous Truss mini-budget, and now he wants to repeat it with huge unfunded spending pledges and only vague promises of fantasy savings. It’s Trussonomics on steroids.”
Reform has surged in the polls, including in London where it has overtaken the Tories according to one survey, with both the Conservatives and Labour seeing a slump in their popularity.
Mr Farage on Tuesday launched a direct attack on “unpatriotic” and “out-of-touch” Sir Keir Starmer, as he sought to position Reform UK as the true opposition to Labour.
The Reform leader used a major speech in central London to accuse the Prime Minister of “betrayal” over his deal with the European Union and the handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
But Labour Party chairwoman Ellie Reeves said: "There's nothing new about what Nigel Farage said today: the tens of billions of pounds of fantasy promises he made this morning are exactly how Liz Truss crashed the economy, devastating the finances of families across the country.”
