Reform UK’s deputy leader has admitted the party cannot deliver the £90bn in tax cuts promised in its manifesto, saying it would concentrate on public spending cuts once in government.
Richard Tice said key election pledges such as lifting the income tax threshold would be an “aspiration” and that once in government Reform would concentrate on cutting the civil service and scrapping net zero.
Reform’s leader, Nigel Farage, is said to be planning a speech next month to overhaul the party’s economic policy – which Labour and the Conservatives see as a key weakness. The Times reported that Farage would promise to reduce spending before reducing taxes.
Farage has previously said he expected to make £350bn worth of spending cuts over the course of the parliament – the equivalent of axing the whole schools budget every year or wiping out a third of NHS funding annually.
He has said he would find the savings via cuts to net zero, migrant hotels and diversity initiatives, but added the target figure was also widely expected to be revised.
“A manifesto is based on a point in time,” Tice told Times Radio. “The principles behind it are absolutely rock solid. We said we’ve got to make very significant savings in order to fund a different way to run the economy.
“What’s happened since then is that the state of the economy, because of the mismanagement by this Labour government, the numbers have got far worse. And we will be focusing relentlessly, as I’ve been saying, on the savings.”
Policies in the manifesto included raising the inheritance tax threshold to £2m, lifting the income tax personal allowance to £20,000 and the higher rate to £70,000 and reducing corporation tax to 15%. It also included tax relief on private school fees and cuts to fuel duty.
“As an aspiration, that is absolutely the plan, the principle behind it. But we cannot do any of this, given the state of the finances, until we deliver on the savings,” Tice said. “We’re focusing on the savings, deliver on the savings, deliver on the regulation cuts, that’s the way we change the way that you run and manage this economy, then you can get performance-related tax cuts further down the road only when you’ve delivered on the savings.”
Reform has made a major play of finding cuts in local government after victories in the 2025 local elections – suggesting the party would send in cost-cutting teams modelled on the US president Donald Trump’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge).
Tice said changes to regulations would make cost-cutting easier, saying they would not run up against the same issues nationally.
“We will change the obligations that are set down by the government because we will completely, boldly change the way that the government functions, the way the civil service functions.
“There are a whole range of things, frankly, that the government does at the moment that regulations provide that are a hindrance to productivity, a hindrance to growth.”
A Labour spokesperson said Reform’s economic plans were “built on sand”.
“Farage continues to flirt with Liz Truss’s economy-crashing unfunded pledges – which would leave family finances at risk. Working people simply cannot trust Reform. They offer anger but no answers,” the spokesperson said. “Only this Labour government is focused on renewing Britain, so that we can grow the economy and put money back in people’s pockets.”
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has previously said the sums in Reform UK’s 2024 manifesto were implausible. “Regardless of the pros and cons of shrinking the state, or of any of their specific measures, the package as a whole is problematic,” it said. “Spending reductions would save less than stated, and the tax cuts would cost more than stated, by a margin of tens of billions of pounds per year.”
The Conservative shadow chancellor, Mel Stride, said the plans were “all over the place … Reform stood on a platform last year of huge unfunded commitments which would have wrecked the public finances. They cannot be trusted to run our economy.
“It’s Corbynism in a different colour – undeliverable, uncosted, and totally detached from reality. Britain needs a serious and honest plan to live within our means, support wealth creators and grow the economy.”
