Nigel Farage is preparing to outflank the prime minister on benefits by committing to restoring winter fuel payments in full to all pensioners and scrapping the two-child benefit cap.
It is understood the Reform UK leader will try to appeal to more left-wing voters in a speech next week, where he will brand Sir Keir Starmer “one of the most unpatriotic prime ministers in our history”.
The speech will pile further pressure on Sir Keir, who is already braced for a major rebellion from his own MPs on upcoming welfare cuts and facing growing concern over the direction of the Labour Party under his leadership.
Mr Farage’s upcoming speech – first reported in the Telegraph – marks an attempt to regain control of the narrative after he was criticised for taking a week of holiday while the House of Commons was sitting.
The Clacton MP was abroad while the prime minister struck a major UK-EU deal and signed a treaty to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
While MPs have left Westminster for recess, Mr Farage is expected to return to the political arena and say: “The prime minister is out of touch with working people, he doesn’t understand what they want and how they feel about the big issues facing Britain.
“It’s going to be these very same working people that will vote Reform at the next election and kick Labour out of government.”
Reform UK is riding high in opinion polls after it stormed to victory at the local elections, winning nearly 700 seats, as well as overturning Labour’s hold of the Runcorn and Helsby constituency.
The latest opinion polling from YouGov revealed Reform is the most popular party among voters at 29 per cent, followed by Labour on 22 per cent and Liberal Democrats at 17 per cent. The Conservatives are in fourth place at 16 per cent.
Reform sources said Mr Farage is already “outflanking Labour”, revealing plans to scrap the two-child benefit cap and restore the winter fuel payment in full to all pensioners.
The payment was previously made to all pensioners, but Labour reduced it to only those receiving pension credit in one of its early acts in government.
Labour now appears to be scrambling to counter Mr Farage’s move, with reports emerging on Sunday that Sir Keir is gearing up to scrap the two-child benefit cap, in what would be his second U-turn following months of pressure over Labour’s approach to benefits.
While Downing Street has previously said there is “no one silver bullet to tackle child poverty” when pressed on whether the government would scrap the cap, sources have now told The Observer that the prime minister thinks ending it is the right thing to do.
It comes after new costings released by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) show that 109 children are pulled into poverty by the policy every day.
The number affected will continue to increase until 2035, when the first children born under the turn 18.
The charity says that scrapping the cap would be the most cost-effective way to lift kids out of poverty.
